RIA Innovation Conference
Innovating and Transforming Rail for All
Charlotte Hills
Building a legacy of knowledge, expertise and new commercial opportunities
Liam Henderson
Unlocking the future of rail: SMEs, digital transformation and the role of Government
Kelly Warburton Landmark moment for GCRE
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elcome to the latest Rail Director, which this month is themed around innovation. There has been a huge amount of interest in appearing in this month’s magazine, evidence of the appetite there is for bringing new ideas to the industry.
This comes fresh from the recent Connected Places Summit and the Railway Industry Association’s (RIA) Innovation Conference, both highlighting the importance of innovation in driving the sector forward and an acceptance that as it stands, it is too difficult and slow to get new products and services into the sector.
But that is something that is hopefully changing with the launch of GBRX, a new strategic innovation body, with its Managing Director Toufic Machnouk this month’s cover feature, discussing the future of rail technology and what it will take to deliver breakthroughs where it’s needed most.
Explaining more about GBRX, Toufic said: “Its role is to break through the friction that holds technological development and adoption back by working on the breadth of system conditions, whether that’s application development, commercial misalignment, organisational boundaries, methods of change or cultural resistance.”
Read the full article from page 6.
I feel there is a lot to be excited about when it comes to innovation in the rail industry, particularly on the back of having attended the Connected Places Summit and the RIA Innovation Conference. Concluding the latter, Noel Travers, RIA Chair, said: “Over the two days we’ve seen some incredible products and services being showcased by the UK rail supply chain. These fresh ideas and thinking are going to be key to shaping the future of rail, both domestically in the UK, and around the world.” You can read more about the Innovation Conference from page 16, and the Connected Places Summit from page 36.
While at the RIA Innovation Conference it was great to have a catch up with Kelly Warburton, Chief Commercial Officer of the Global Centre of Rail Excellence, who explained how this year is shaping up to be a landmark one for her and her team. She reflects on her career and discusses the journey ahead at the proposed train, railway infrastructure and testing facility in Wales. You can read the full feature from page 28.
Thanks also to Liam Henderson from the Rail Innovation Group (RIG), who has outlined a new report titled Skills Beyond Scale, which found that while start ups and small digital companies have the skills and are pioneering solutions in data science, AI, automation, and customer-centric services, barriers remain to realising the benefits they could bring. The report was developed using the experiences and insights of RIG members. More details from page 24.
I hope you enjoy the latest edition of Rail Director. Thanks to everyone who has contributed. Next month the theme will be around train operators, with some fantastic interviews already lined up and space in the magazine filling up.
All the best,
Danny Longhorn Editor
There has been a huge amount of interest in appearing in this month’s magazine, evidence of the appetite there is for bringing new ideas to the industry
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Toufic Machnouk, Managing Director of GBRX, writes about the future of rail technology in Britain, the launch of the new strategic innovation body, and what it will take to deliver breakthroughs where it’s needed most
Charlotte Hills, HS2 Ltd’s Head of Innovation, discusses delivering the project’s award-winning innovation programme
Featuring the news of Arriva Group ordering nine cutting-edge battery hybrid trains to replace its entire Grand Central fleet
The Railway Industry Association’s (RIA) Innovation Conference has returned to the ICC Wales for two days of keynote speeches, TechTalks and exhibitor spotlights. Rail Director reports
A new Rail Innovation Group report highlights the critical role of start-ups and small digital companies in rail’s digital evolution. The group’s Chair Liam Henderson explains more
Kelly Warburton, Chief Commercial Officer at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence has recently been recognised in the Northern PoWEr Women Awards 2025 Powerlist. She reflects on her career and the journey ahead in the proposed train, railway infrastructure and technology testing facility in Wales
The second Connected Places Summit has been held in London with 285 speakers and more than 1,100 delegates, with many more watching online. Rail Director reports from the two-day event
42 Understanding your audience and delivering Jen Clare, Service Delivery Director at Lumo, discusses creating the right culture to look after staff and deliver for the passenger
62 £5 million Government funding drives pioneering technology to improve passenger experience
The First of a Kind (FOAK) competition will support projects that can offer level boarding, greener transport, passenger safety and AI solutions
The
All
RIA has published a report examining how rail suppliers are improving accessibility across the rail network 80 Buyers Guide
86 “A golden generation for rail”
Costain has appointed Alistair Geddes as Rail Sector Director. Joining from Balfour Beatty, he will support Costain’s strategic focus on growth in strong markets, as well as ensure the business continues to provide predictable, best-in-class delivery to its customers. He answers questions about his aims and aspirations
90 Community projects connecting people with rail recognised at 20th national awards
An inspiring range of initiatives, delivered by community groups, partnerships, and volunteers across Britain, have been celebrated at the 2025 Community Rail Awards
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Toufic Machnouk, Managing Director of GBRX, writes about the future of rail technology in Britain, the launch of the new strategic innovation body, and what it will take to deliver breakthroughs where it’s needed most
n a year defined by reform and urgency, GBRX has been created with a clear mandate: to unlock technological innovation and help Britain’s railway meet the demands of the future. But what does that really mean? And how will GBRX do things differently?
What is GBRX and why was it created?
GBRX is a new capability for the railway, designed to unlock some of the biggest technological opportunities by working on the conditions that enable them. It is not a think tank, or a lab. It is a strategic enabler working at the crossroads of track and train, public and private, principles and delivery. It is creating capabilities that allow us to see and do things we can’t see and do today and to apply that in the field within the operating businesses of the sector. Its role is to break through the friction that holds technological development and adoption back by working on the breadth of system conditions, whether that’s application development, commercial misalignment, organisational boundaries, methods of change or cultural resistance.
GBRX has been created not because the system is short of ideas but because it’s short of the conditions that let the right ideas thrive.
Why has rail lagged behind in technological innovation - and how will GBRX change that?
The railway is a system optimising for safety and certainty. That’s a necessary thing. But it also makes it hard to try and adopt things that change a part of how that system works, in a way that enables them to be developed, adopted and scaled. Our big technological challenges sit at the crossroads of track and train. Layers of complexity, technical, industrial, commercial, have made even what is possible feel impossible. It’s why proven technologies like digital signalling took more than 20 years to find a scalable delivery path in Britain and it’s still immensely challenging to deliver across tens of organisations. We’re not just trying to make technological
Building strong foundations
innovation easier; we’re trying to make it possible across track and train. That means confronting the conditions that make it so difficult.
With a keen eye on the future, Kieran recognised there was a gap in SEP Geotech’s offering:
While the demand is always there for new staff, Kieran knows the value of hiring the right people:
What GBRX brings is a model that responds to these complexities directly in order to solve the underlying conditions.
“What SEP Geotech does ties together perfectly with piling. The purpose of our investigation forms the basis of the pile design, and our sister company, SEP Rail Design, designs the piles; now we will install them.”
Piling, in engineering terms, involves the installation of foundations driven or bored into the ground to transfer loads to deeper, more stable soil. These structural elements are essential when the natural bearing capacity of the soil is insufficient for supporting heavy construction loads.
Kieran’s extensive engineering experience, developed since his teenage years, has been centred around piling. He explained:
It sits at the crossroads of track and train, it is creating relationships that allow us to see and do things we can’t see and do today, it employs a functional model that is designed to work in deep collaboration with the operating businesses of the sector, it will have a portfolio approach and a mechanism for the market to engage in a more structured way, and it has adopted and adapted the best methods for structured development in the field from the world’s leading innovators which focus on the required conditions.
“This is a critical moment for the piling and foundations industry. Exciting innovations within pile design and installations are allowing for improved project turnaround times and more technically demanding programmes.
It is fundamentally a convener of some of the best capabilities in the world and applies them to the realworld environment of the sector in order to expose and work on the underlying conditions in a purposeful and structured way.
When the conditions are right things happen. It is a natural force.
“By leveraging our team’s experience, alongside utilising the wider SEP Rail Group’s capabilities, SEP Geotech is in a perfect position to deliver projects from feasibility to design through to completion.”
Isn’t that just more research and development (R&D) under a new name?
Prioritising growth and expertise
Investing in the professional development of the current team is also not just a priority; it’s a key part of SEP Geotech’s vision for the future.
There is a language challenge here that is important to expose. Innovation is a term that generates different images in people’s minds because of popular culture and the role of big tech companies
in our world today. Innovation is fundamentally the process of creating things that solve problems or improve the human experience. Depending on the kind of problem, the opportunity and the conditional environment, this can take on different approaches and methods. What we shouldn’t think of is just the creative process, or a way of generating wacky ideas. That is not innovation.
“This industry isn’t for the faint-hearted. Late nights, early mornings. Long periods of time away from your family. My office is my mobile phone and my van; we’re always on the road, on-site, and getting our hands dirty.
“Our team shares a deep commitment to the enduring success of our business and is constantly seeking ways to enhance their skills and improve our services.
R&D is a core part of the innovation process. It provides a structured approach to prioritising resources in technical development. It is a core part of innovation, but it doesn’t in its nature of focusing on technical development take into account the environmental and system conditions in itself. This requires a broader view and approach.
“We take pride in being one of the few geotechnical companies that offer specialised drilling NVQs to our team, ensuring that our workforce remains at the forefront of industry expertise and quality.”
This is a critical moment for the piling and foundations industry
The role of GBRX is to sit in those conditions and to move them in the areas it is working, within which there will be multiple avenues of technical development from upstream research to application development in the field.
Investment in staff is one thing. But the evolving rail industry landscape also demands industryleading equipment. To address this, Kieran provides a candid glimpse into a forthcoming investment at SEP Geotech:
So, R&D is an important and central part of innovation methodology.
What makes GBRX different from previous innovation initiatives?
“We’re investing in a new, state-of-the-art solution designed for safe work on embankments, slopes, and even over water. This innovation eliminates the need for traditional rope access, streamlining our processes even further.”
This is our mission: to help build a railway that works smarter, more efficiently, and is built around the people who use and run it
This is a very important question. One thing I have heard from some people is that “we have tried innovation before, and it didn’t work” as though there is a fundamental inability to improve things in nature, which is a strange statement to make. It talks to a fundamental misunderstanding of what
As SEP Geotech continues to evolve and expand its offerings, one thing is clear: Kieran Moran’s experience, dedication, and vision will remain at the forefront, driving the company to even greater heights in the geotechnical engineering industry.
innovation is and the system conditions that prevent the sector from technological change as though it is some mystery. It is not a mystery; it is understandable and understood. It is just hard to do well.
I am very clear on this, and it was central to our approach in creating GBRX. This will not work if it is just an initiative in the sector. That might help spotlight some challenges and champion ideas, but it won’t have the impact that is desired unless we respond to the conditions we understand.
That is why GBRX is being created the way it is. We are laying the foundations within shadow GBR, and it will shape how we do this in Great British Railways. It combines five key features, sitting at the crossroads of track and train, creating capabilities that allow us to see and do things we can’t today, employ some commercial and fiscal freedoms to be able to work with emerging technology and emerging market places, it acts as a convener of problems and opportunities within and without the sector connecting experts and owners of problems, and it is fundamentally a collaborative enterprise that works in the field with the operating businesses.
Without these features and conditions, we will not have responded to the fundamental conditions that are in the way of strategic technological development and scalable adoption in the sector.
The importance of working with universities and technology companies?
We have done extensive engagement and learning with sibling sectors in aviation, health and others and spent time with world leading innovators such as the X company part of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. It’s called the Moonshot Factory and is the company that developed Waymo, for example, self-driving cars.
What we gained from this are two key things. One is that every conversation we had opened new understandings of problems that allowed us to approach solutions in a much better way. The second is that we saw how those who are having a big impact on their environment with technology such as Rolls Royce and its application of data science to its engine management, had applied a specific, purposeful and dynamic innovation methodology that allowed them to make progressive real-world changes.
This formed an important belief that we need to create and maintain relationships with world leading
innovators to allow us to see and do things we can’t see and do today.
Several areas have resulted in new directions by connecting the dots with a diversity of experts and problem owners in a new way.
So, we are creating dynamic relationships with the best in the world to connect with the sector’s ecosystem so that we can expand our capability to solve big challenges.
How will GBRX support SMEs and smaller suppliers?
SMEs face challenges when engaging in new technology with a big industrial safety critical system like rail. Too often, new opportunities stall because the system isn’t set up to help shape them and absorb them and it is a complex system to navigate alone.
GBRX is building new pathways for connecting clearer problem statements with suppliers, particularly SMEs, to support better understanding of value, viability, development and then a supported path to adoption, particularly around safety methods.
We are setting this up as a sector innovation platform that forms a more transparent and supporting path to early-stage engagement.
What does success look like for GBRX in the next 12 months?
We are working to create something new for the sector by building on successful experiences of technological development in the past and learning from the best. The sector has a rich history of technological innovation but has struggled in recent decades.
It is immensely challenging to create this capability because, had the conditions already been there for it, then it would have happened on its own.
Sector reform gives us the opportunity of a generation to shape this into the new environment, first through shadow GBR and then into GBR itself.
In the next year, that means mobilising and maturing the model within the shadow GBR phase and building the capabilities and relationships we are pursuing. It means launching our core mechanisms such as the portfolio board that will better oversee and govern resource deployment for technologies and the innovation platform which will enable suppliers to engage directly more effectively.
We’ll be publishing our first prospectus later in the
spring which will set out our high-impact opportunity areas, places where the railway needs to focus its technological development and skills development.
We are already working in these big opportunity areas, understanding the challenges, conditions, shaping strategy, and figuring out the commercial barriers and how to overcome them. We are also pushing the technological developments in the direction we need as we learn, and over the coming months will be applying developments in the field in the areas of digital signalling, infrastructure monitoring, machine vision, and quantum engineering to name a few.
We are also working with the sector on the skill challenge and how we build future technology skills. We are centering this around the capabilities of data science and engineering which bridges the space between business and technology. This is a core skill that we are convening the sector around.
Final thoughts: Pioneering a better railway for people
This is our mission: to help build a railway that works smarter, more efficiently, and is built around the people who use and run it.
GBRX is a delivery-focused capability designed to take on the barriers to technological adoption. It is the first delivery unit of GBR and is working to maximise the opportunities of reform.
We’ve identified the biggest friction points and the highest impact opportunity areas. We’re standing up the delivery model, launching the mechanism, and forming partnerships that will open new directions.
It’s about doing the work to align commercial models, fix fragmentation, and close the gap between R&D and real-world application in the operating environment. It’s about building the structures, technical, organisational, fiscal, that make it possible to act on what we know is possible.
No one part of the sector can do this alone. GBRX is the platform that brings the sector together with the required approach and capability.
We know this is hard. Possibly one of the hardest things to try and do in such a complex, large and fragmented industrial system. But we also know it’s possible, because we’ve seen it, we’ve done it before, we’ve seen others doing it, and we’re building on what we know works.
Charlotte Hills, HS2 Ltd’s Head of Innovation, discusses delivering the project’s award-winning innovation programme
If you’d have told Charlotte Hills 20 years ago that she’d be getting excited about concrete, she wouldn’t have believed you. But that was before she joined HS2’s innovation team and experienced the impact of bringing new ideas to the industry.
“When you get involved in a massive infrastructure project like HS2 where there is a real commitment to do things better and to deliver a step change for the industry, you can’t fail to be excited and inspired,” she said.
HS2 aims to be a world-class 21st century railway service that embraces new technologies, innovating to do more with less and create fewer emissions and noise, while at the same time building a legacy of knowledge, expertise and new commercial opportunities for the UK.
The project Charlotte is
particularly excited about is calcined clay being used as a low-carbon alternative to cement in concrete.
“We’re going to be excavating five million tonnes of London clay from our London tunnels,” she explained.
“We have a responsibility to repurpose 95 per cent of that. At the minute it will be going to quarries or be used on nature projects, but if there was a UK kiln we could process it into calcine clay which could replace GGBS, which is an increasingly scarce commodity and of which prices are going up.”
Trials have shown it would be suitable to be used in calcine clay, it has now been taken to the Department for Transport and the Transport, Research and Innovation Board, and HS2 is now leading a task and finish group with National Highways and Network Rail.
“We’re working to break the market deadlock and get to a point where we
can have a commercial kiln in the UK, potentially in the next five years,” she commented. “It would mean that the UK construction industry would stand a really good chance of meeting its 2030/35 decarbonisation targets, which at the moment it just can’t do unless we start using calcine clay.
“The markets aren’t responding so with all this clay, we’ve taken the opportunity to do something about it. If everything happens soon enough, we
could then use this calcine clay to build later parts of the programme, like depots or part of the rail systems contracts when they’re built. It gives us this fantastic story of circularity. We’re using our waste materials to create concrete for later parts of the programme.”
HS2 is looking to drive project efficiencies and create wider long-term economic benefits through its Innovation Accelerator programme, a partnership with the Connected Places Catapult. Earlier this
When you get involved in a massive infrastructure project like HS2 where there is a real commitment to do things better and to deliver a step change for the industry, you can’t fail to be excited and inspired
It has been really exciting to get start-ups in to do live trials on site delivering with real impact, and also the process that we have of quantifying the value of what we do
year saw the cohort for the seventh programme announced, with six technology-focused UK-based companies picked to develop fresh ideas to meet three challenges of automating asset management, maximising site productivity, and future-proofing operations.
The small and medium-sized enterprises are working with HS2 and its partners to refine each of their ideas, before showcasing their innovations to industry players and hopefully generating more business with their developed technological solutions.
“The industry can be very slow to innovate, but that’s something we are trying to change. Doing so has been a core part of the message internally and we’ve always had that buy in from senior stakeholders, something that is really critical,” she said.
The HS2 innovation programme builds on the success of the likes of Crossrail and Tideway London that looked to encourage and incentivise new ways of working through the supply chain. For HS2, a strategy was implemented early in the programme, along with early engagement with suppliers with incentives to innovate, and the team is working with its Tier 1 contractors on finding solutions to challenges.
Charlotte, who was previously Innovation Lead at Tideway London before joining HS2 four years ago, said: “There is this understanding that clients have a responsibility to take the lead and provide this seed
funding from the supply chain to help de-risk things so they can feel comfortable to deploy them at scale.
“What is particularly pleasing at HS2 Innovation is that we’ve done a good job in creating a really robust process where we take things through and we’re seeing things commercially signed off and having a big impact. We have been able to use fewer people and not add time to the schedule, so we are able to quantify significant savings – about £725 million through our innovation programme.
“It has been really exciting to get start-ups in to do live trials on site delivering with real impact, and also the process that we have of quantifying the value of what we do. Obviously there is an enormous amount of scrutiny on HS2, we’ve got to provide value for the taxpayer and I think in a way it’s forced us as an innovation function to be really robust.
“We’re not just about culture or trying to make people feel good about doing things differently. We’ve got to actually demonstrate value. And if we didn’t do that, I don’t think we’d really exist, so I feel proud to be doing what we do. I think of it as being commercially really robust and really needed.”
There is no hiding away from the fact that HS2 is going through a particularly challenging time at the minute. The project is currently undergoing a full programme reset, with it taking until next year at the earliest before there is an updated cost estimate for
phase 1. Mark Wild joined as the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer several months ago as part of a series of reforms across the project aimed at bearing down on costs and safely delivering the scheme on time.
“In the broader context of HS2 we all know there are issues to be addressed and that are being addressed through the reset, but we really do need innovation if we’re going to have certainty going forward, in fact where we are there’s a need for innovation to be an even bigger part of what we’re doing,” she said.
“We’ve got a really good portfolio of proven technologies that we’re working on with the supply chain that’s been primarily focused on derisking innovation for the supply chain. We’re now thinking how can we incorporate that technology and make us a more intelligent client, how can we work with procurement and with our IT departments internally to make it easier to adopt emerging technology.
“Looking to the future, we’re gearing up to support the rail systems contracts as they mobilise, having previously been heavily focused on delivering civils in our stations. We are looking at how we can replicate that success that we’ve had on the new contracts. We’ve also got an important role to play in supporting the organisation through the reset over the next year.”
Arriva Group has ordered nine cuttingedge battery hybrid trains to replace its entire Grand Central fleet, providing a major boost to regional economies and offering passengers more comfortable, greener travel options.
The order for 45 Hitachi Rail tri-mode cars, which have the flexibility to run on electrified and nonelectrified tracks, along with a 10-year maintenance contract, represents an investment of around £300 million.
It follows approval by the rail regulator for extended track access rights for Grand Central’s existing services through to 2038.
Amanda Furlong, Managing Director of Arriva UK Trains, said: “This major investment underscores our commitment to the UK market. We are proud to connect under-served communities with regional and national centres, helping make sustainable train travel the easy choice.
“These best-in-class, greener trains will deliver more comfortable journeys and a step-change in capacity on our popular Grand Central services. We look forward to announcing further rolling stock orders, providing jobs and wider economic benefits, as and when our network grows.”
The trains, which will be manufactured at Hitachi’s Newton Aycliffe factory, will increase seat numbers by 20 per cent which means 400,000 additional seats per year will be available to passengers travelling between the North East, Yorkshire and London. Because of their tri-mode capability the trains could be used on other routes in the future. They are also
expected to reduce both emissions and noise.
Jim Brewin, Hitachi Rail Chief Director of UK & Ireland, said: “As we celebrate 200 years since the birth of the modern railway in the North East, it’s symbolic that innovative battery trains are being developed in Newton Aycliffe.
“Battery trains’ ability to deliver cheaper, greener, and more reliable journeys means we are unlocking a new advanced manufacturing opportunity for rail today.
“Following the successful trial of this pioneering battery technology last year, Arriva and Angel Trains are transforming Hitachi’s £17 million R&D investment into the first battery train order to be built in the UK.”
The trains will be delivered in 2028 under a 10-year leasing arrangement, in partnership and financed by Angel Trains.
David Jordan, Chief Operating Officer of Angel Trains, said: “Our multimillion-pound investment into these state-of-the-art tri-mode trains will deliver significant benefits for Grand Central passengers, connecting communities across the North of England and driving essential economic growth.
“This latest development builds on the momentum created by the successful conclusion of our battery trial with Hitachi Rail at the end of last year and demonstrates the transformative potential of battery technology in both existing and new fleets.”
The railway line between Kettering in Northamptonshire and Wigston near Leicester has reached a major milestone by being officially declared ready and safe for electric trains.
The certification for the 23-mile section is a massive achievement in Network Rail’s Midland Main Line Electrification Programme – the biggest programme of improvements to the line since its completion in 1870.
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) issued the Authorisation to Place into Service (APiS) for the Kettering to Wigston section, which includes a new substation at Braybrooke, near Market Harborough, to provide extra power and resilience to the network.
The Kettering to Wigston section was energised in summer 2024, after which various tests took place to ensure that trains can draw power from the new infrastructure. This provided the necessary data for the ORR to grant the APiS.
The testing phase also explored how the Midland Main Line could be made even more efficient in future, such as having masts further apart to reduce costs and construction time.
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The Railway Industry Association’s (RIA) Innovation Conference has returned to the ICC Wales for two days of keynote speeches, TechTalks and exhibitor spotlights. Rail Director reports
The Chief Technology Officer at Network Rail has called on the industry, on the 200th anniversary of the first passenger train service, to be the rail pioneers of the future. Robert Ampomah was speaking at the RIA Innovation Conference at the ICC in Wales.
“We want better, smarter innovation, but also to make sure it is done at an affordable price,” he said. “We’ve got to bring along SMEs which have got the capabilities and expertise to drive forward innovation. We have got the opportunity to change what we’re doing in the coming years, and particularly as we celebrate the 200th year of the railway, it is about seeing how we can be the rail pioneers.”
It is a challenge that those attending the RIA Innovation Conference are up for and in many cases already have the solutions for. Robert’s speech laid the foundations for the award-winning flagship event in the Unlocking Innovation programme, bringing together inspirational leaders, pioneering engineers, ambitious entrepreneurs, and passionate railway professionals, for this year’s theme of Innovating and Transforming Rail for All.
Toufic Machnouk, Managing Director of GBRX, a recently launched strategic innovation body
established to pioneer breakthrough technologies which solve some of the sector’s most intractable modernisation challenges, spoke of an industry steeped in innovation. He recognised that in recent decades innovating has been difficult to do, acknowledging the sector’s commercial complexity as a barrier in doing so.
“Rail reform presents us a multi-decade opportunity to bring us much closer together that will go some way to unlocking some of the challenges,” he said. “But that is not enough and GBRX is designed to tackle the ecosystem challenges of innovation.”
The two-day event featured keynote speeches, train operator company pitch sessions, exhibitor spotlights and innovators’ TechTalks, combining an opportunity to share innovations, be inspired by technological and research advancements happening in the UK and around the world, and the chance to engage with clients and suppliers to overcome the barriers.
Shamit Gaiger OBE, Managing Director at the West Coast Partnership Development, spoke about how the organisation is putting the customer at the heart of its decision-making and embedding innovation in its processes, systems, governance, and
assurance. She highlighted that whilst good practice is not easy to implement, bad practice is easy to avoid.
The event was an opportunity to showcase success and reasons to be optimistic for the future. Definitely in the latter camp is the plan for the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE), a purpose-built site in Wales for world-class research, testing and certification of rolling stock, infrastructure and innovative new rail technologies.
Simon Jones, Chief Executive, said: “Nearly 250 organisations from across the UK and Europe have pledged their interest in GCRE. We are creating a place where all the innovations talked about today can be proved and demonstrated to the world.”
David Horne, Managing Director at LNER, also explained to the 500 attendees about the impact innovation is having on the train operator, highlighting its FutureLabs initiative, its flagship annual accelerator programme.
“We’re not just talking about innovation at LNER, we are doing it,” he said. “We are creating the conditions for the railway sector to innovate and as operators we are listening and learning.”
Something that is gathering steam in the railways is an openness to look at what other industries are
doing, as evidenced by speaker Jo North, Technology and Transformation Director at the Port of Tyne, who highlighted its importance. She said: “We’ve got more in common than we have apart. The challenges we face are bigger than one organisation. We can go faster and do it better so let’s join up more and see what can happen.”
On day two, Martin Taylor, Network Rail’s Wales Route Infrastructure Director, outlined his passion to create an “area of hope where innovation is welcomed”.
“I want to create a system that encourages people to come and work with us and allows innovation to deliver the outcomes in terms of our compliance, regulatory measures, our metrics, but also the outcomes that we are trying to deliver for our customers, our passengers, the people that are important and the areas we serve,” he told delegates, adding that in the Wales and Western Region there is roughly £4 million for research and development readily available.
“We are keen to understand the challenges that everyone sees in innovating but as a testbed, as a hub, I’d welcome conversations, ideas, trials.”
Among the keynote speakers was Geoff Ogden, Chief Transport Planning and Development Officer at Transport for Wales (TfW), who explained the appetite the organisation has for innovation.
“We have a strong track record of innovation and a strong record of collaboration,” he said, highlighting the Lab by Transport for Wales initiative to showcase innovation and tech talent.
Dr Alan Peters, Ecosystems Director, Connected Places Catapult, spoke about how innovation is as important as ever, saying that the organisation aims to bridge the gap between discovering ideas and the market.
Among the 70 projects it is involved in are HS2’s Accelerator Programme, and Station Innovation Zone at Bristol Temple Meads. He said: “We are not measured by the success of ourselves, but by the people that we work with.”
Sharon Odetunde, Head of Academic Partnerships at RSSB, chaired a UKRRIN panel discussion around research and industry working together to enable innovation. Joining Sharon was Professor Paul Plummer, University of Birmingham; Professor Paul Allen, University of Huddersfield; and Rod Anderson, from the University of Southampton, who reflected on successes in facilitating greater collaboration.
Rod said: “It is important that the industry understands the resource available to them. Universities as an ecosystem are hugely powerful.”
Closing the event, RIA’s Chair and Chief Executive of Buckland Rail, Noel Travers, asked those in attendance to consider their business and the innovation they bring to the rail industry and posed two questions.
“What do you need to do to navigate the shortterm uncertainty that we are currently experiencing, whilst making yourself ready to capitalise on the upside growth we know is needed and will be wanted by elected politicians right across the country to meet their political arms?” he said.
“Secondly, how can we break down the barriers between Government, clients and suppliers and how do we make the industry more receptive to the innovation that is so desperately required to meet the desire to provide a safe and reliable service to our freight and passenger customers at a cost that the Government believes is affordable over the long term? We all have personal responsibility for helping to do this and maintaining a healthy discussion about the future.”
Overall, the two days proved there was an abundance of innovation in the railways and an appetite and willingness to collaborate, to accelerate its adoption.
Noel concluded: “Innovation is, and has been, at the centre of the railways since the first railway line was built 200 years ago – a date that is quite rightly being recognised and celebrated across the industry this year.
“Over the two days we’ve seen some incredible
Innovation is, and has been, at the centre of the railways since the first railway line was built 200 years ago – a date that is quite rightly being recognised and celebrated across the industry this year
products and services being showcased by the UK rail supply chain. These fresh ideas and thinking are going to be key to shaping the future of rail, both domestically in the UK, and around the world.”
The RIA Innovation Conference will return to the ICC Wales on March 17 and 18, 2026. Super early bird tickets and exhibition spaces have gone live. Visit www.riagb.org.uk/RIC26 for more details.
Alongside the Railway Industry Association’s recent Innovation Conference, or more properly on the floor below the conference auditorium, some 60 innovators exhibited their latest offerings and developments to the assembled delegates
Images: Rob Finney/RIA
Having the exhibition in the same space as the refreshments and dining area gave everyone a great opportunity to network and see what suppliers had to offer.
Network Rail, as a Strategic Partner of the conference, had by far the largest stand, which it utilised for its R&D showcase. All manner of developments were on show, including a number of Wales & Western region initiatives, which was apt, considering that the national Innovation Conference doubled up as the Wales & Western leg of RIA’s Unlocking Innovation programme.
Gareth Evans, Head of Rail Technology at Network Rail, made a Spotlight presentation to the assembled delegates, explaining the importance that Network Rail now attaches to innovation and its necessity if
CP7 targets are going to be met.
Telent Technology Services, also a Strategic Partner, had a busy stand. Programme Manager Luke Simpson, who spoke in the main conference on the second day, was on hand to explain the latest telecommunications innovations to interested delegates.
The third Strategic Parter was UKRRIN – the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network – which is a collaboration between academia and industry, built on the development of three Centres of Excellence formed by a consortium of universities, in collaboration with existing industry testing and trialling facilities and Network Rail. Rod Anderson, Transport Infrastructure Research Programme Manager at the University of
Southampton explained the arrangement by way of a Spotlight presentation.
Of the other stands. L.B. Foster probably had the most eye-catching, featuring a huge central logo that had previously formed part of a much larger display at InnoTrans 2024 last September, and holographic 3D displays powered by Skratch, an L.B. Foster company specialising in bespoke audio-visual innovations highlighted the company’s expertise in integrating cutting-edge technology.
However, taking centre stage was the Welcome Point, the newest addition to the company’s Inform Totems range. Designed with accessibility in mind, the illuminated display was hard to miss, despite the
large number of innovations on display elsewhere on the exhibition’s bustling floor.
L.B. Foster also showcased advancements in friction management, unveiling its MC-5 Gauge Face Bar and The KOB™ system, tailored for the global rail sector. The launch of the company’s new signalling control panels components catalogue further solidified its role as a problem-solver for global infrastructure challenges.
Director of Sales and Marketing David Clarke expressed enthusiasm for the event’s collaborative atmosphere: “This event is a fantastic opportunity
for innovators across the industry to engage directly with rail sector customers. At L.B. Foster, we innovate to solve global infrastructure challenges and keep the world moving.”
Another company at the forefront of railway innovation is UK-based deep-tech firm CrossTech, which is setting a new standard in infrastructure monitoring with its market-leading AI inspection systems. The team’s presentation during its Spotlight session allowed exhibition visitors to learn more about CrossTech’s cutting-edge technologies and discover that the future of rail inspection is here.
The exhibitor list reads as a who’s who of railway
CrossTech’s intelligent systems include Hubble, designed for linear asset monitoring, and POLER, which delivers real-time inspection insights into overhead line equipment and vehicle conditions. What sets these solutions apart is their use of advanced AI and deep learning – far beyond the capabilities of traditional visual inspection systems.
This isn’t just clever tech – it’s globally recognised innovation. CrossTech’s work has even caught the attention of NVIDIA, putting it firmly on the map as a key player in the AI and railtech space. In a world where reliability and efficiency are critical, it’s exciting to see a home-grown company leading the charge – making the UK a hub for transformative rail technology.
Trains with Brains® was the intriguing subject of the Transmission Dynamics display – a range of rail infrastructure monitoring solutions that remotely monitor a range of rail assets and infrastructure and collectively see dynamic interactions between rail and overhead lines, improving rail reliability.
Damage to the overhead line and the pantograph can pose a significant challenge to the UK rail network, one that costs the industry over £100 million a year and causes severe service disruption. PANDAS-V®, Transmission Dynamics’ pantograph camera and overhead line monitoring system, combines Internet of Things sensor technology with real-time onboard processing using artificial intelligence and machine learning to save critical time in fault identification, allowing for prompt
remediation. PANDAS-V is equipped with GPS tracking and visual reports, allowing operations and maintenance engineering teams to plan and execute remedial actions efficiently, reducing delays and mitigating costly repairs.
“Hearing PANDAS-V referenced by several senior industry leaders as a prime example of innovative technology adoption in UK rail was a real highlight for us,” Transmission Dynamics Managing Director Jenny Hudson commented. “It’s fantastic to see growing recognition of how our real-time monitoring and AI-driven insights are making a real and tangible difference to our customers.”
RSSB – the Rail Safety and Standards Board –hosted two adjacent stands. The first highlighted the
research that is being undertaken on behalf of the industry in a number of fields. Shaped by industry priorities and Government strategies, current areas of focus include optimised operations, reducing train accident risk, traction power management and supporting freight growth.
The second showcased the Rail Technical Strategy (RTS). The RTS – developed collaboratively by RSSB, Network Rail, UKRRIN, RIA and many other organisations – sets a clear direction for the development and uptake of existing and new solutions that are essential for the rail industry to deliver against the challenges it faces.
On day one of the conference, at a lunchtime ‘fireside chat’ with event host Richard Carr, Technical & Engineering Director of the Railway Industry Association (RIA), RSSB Director of Research Luisa Moisio introduced the refreshed strategy to the gathered delegates, invited everyone to engage and presented several case studies where research has successfully moved from the lab to being used on the railway.
Helping companies to help themselves Frazer-Nash Consultancy’s approach to innovation is to help its clients progress their own innovations. Frazer-Nash experts help them to understand their challenges and develop innovative solutions, taking a whole systems approach and applying best practice from other industries to the rail sector. This helps reduce project costs by improving the viability of innovative technology and mitigating risk.
Several Frazer-Nash consultants were on hand
Enhance
AI-powered
Smarter
Real-time
Long-Term
Smarter
This event is a fantastic opportunity for innovators across the industry to engage directly with rail sector customers
at the RIA Innovation Conference to give advice and explain what assistance is available, and a number of case studies could be viewed on the company’s stand to help visitors understand possibilities. These ranged from the use of drones, forecasting flood risk to protect assets and the use of hybrid, oil-free bearings to optimising depot operations and reducing the risk of possession overruns.
Senior Consultant David Plummer spoke to visitors about using video-based AI applications to understand customer behaviour and the application of behavioural, operational and economic modelling to support policy development and efficient train operations. Materials specialist Megan Sturgeon answered questions from delegates, as did Eve Woodward from the modelling team. Rail Innovation Business Manager Richard Wheldon delivered a spotlight presentation on other Frazer-Nash Consultancy offerings.
Artificial Intelligence also appeared on COMET’s busy stand, with Steve Holmes and Paul Hastings explaining to delegates the company’s world-leading methodology, training package and software solution for incident investigation, root cause analysis and prevention.
Tools offered with COMET’S Incident Investigation module include human factors analysis (which aids the all-important just and fair culture), AI-assisted on-demand help, and in-built guidance on building the right preventive actions. Common pitfalls are all addressed – and there is no double handling or duplication of data as reports are automated from the COMET platform.
“COMET Assured takes you beyond surfacelevel checks by uncovering the real reasons behind compliance gaps,” Steve explained. “With configurable templates, real-time data capture, and seamless Power BI integration, you get clear, actionable insights to improve compliance and prevent future issues.”
Steve Holmes, COMET’s Chief Operating Officer, delivered a Tech Talk at the event, expanding on this approach and the growing demand for deeper, more intelligent methods of incident investigation and risk management.
COMET also recently launched The Risk Factor, a new podcast series that challenges outdated thinking in safety, risk and leadership, featuring real stories
conversations with experts from high-risk industries.
Arcadis took to the RIA Innovation Conference to showcase its capabilities across the full asset lifecycle of rail engineering. From early-stage design and construction through to predictive analytics and software-based maintenance solutions, the company’s stand demonstrated how digital tools are reshaping the way rail infrastructure is delivered and sustained. Visitors were particularly drawn to Arcadis’ use of Enterprise Decision Analytics (EDA), a platform that helps clients manage complex asset decisions and operational challenges with greater accuracy and long-term value.
The team highlighted how a data-led approach is being used to support infrastructure owners and operators in making smarter choices around asset maintenance, investment and divestment. By
developing robust asset models and embedding intelligent insights into everyday planning, Arcadis is helping to build a more efficient, resilient and costeffective rail network. In a sector that is rapidly shifting towards sustainability and smarter infrastructure, Arcadis underlined the importance of moving from reactive to predictive strategies. Through better use of existing data, the company is not only improving dayto-day performance but also preparing the network for future generations.
“It’s clear the industry is at a turning point,” said Leigh Jones, Vice President of Clients & Business Development for Mobility in the UK & Ireland at Arcadis. “The demand for smarter, more connected rail infrastructure is growing, and we’re working closely with clients to make that transformation happen, using the power of data to drive better decisions at every stage of the asset lifecycle.”
A plethora of other stands showed off everything from robot dogs (Belvoir Rail had sworn they wouldn’t bring any – and did anyway) to advanced fuel filters (FuelActive), and from (Orange) train washes to electrical connectors (Harting). The exhibitor list reads as a who’s who of railway innovation, and anyone involved in the field is strongly urged to attend next year’s conference (17 & 18 March 2026 at the same venue – ICC Wales, Newport) or one of the regional Unlocking Innovation events that will be held around the country (Derby, London. Midlands, Glasgow) in the latter part of the year.
“The barrier to innovation isn’t around the ideas and technology solutions, but actually in the setting up of the programme to accelerate that innovation and getting it through the valleys of death to implementation and realising the value.”
That’s the message from Tim Mangozza, technology expert at PA Consulting. He accepts that introducing new technologies to the rail network is complex and can take many years. However, it doesn’t need to be so complex; faster adoption can be achieved by aligning technical and commercial efforts.
This has been proven when the organisation worked alongside Network Rail’s Accelerated Innovation Programme, part of a £245 million research and development (R&D) portfolio in CP6.
“There were a lot of R&D projects which would take a long time to solve because they were technically difficult, there were others with lots of potential and no particular reason not to go for it and accelerate it as fast as you could,” added Steven Carden, innovation and technology expert based at PA’s Global Innovation and Technology Centre in Cambridge.
“The entire purpose of the work with Network Rail was to identify the blockers, which might be commercial, procurement, technical, operational, and then look to tackle them and bring the innovation into service much more quickly.
“Making things happen at pace was transformational. We were making decisions 83 per cent faster. The most important thing was that those decisions were stickier. All of the information was there.”
Tim added: “Infrastructure innovation needs to be redesigned from a technology led portfolio to an investment portfolio, with a clear return on investment. We promoted an approach in Network Rail which focused on prioritising and accelerating value – something we’re also doing with HS2’s innovation team.
“HS2 has that mandate for change in its portfolios and programmes because it is a capital programme, and it is working closely and collaboratively with the supply chain to find out what the innovations are that can be invested in. That is a step change in the programme going forward.” Steven and Tim are part of a 4,000 strong team at PA, featuring strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists, across PA’s offices and technology centres in the UK, US, Ireland, the Nordics and Netherlands.
They are excited by the opportunities of rail reform, and particularly by GBRX, the sector’s strategic innovation body working to unlock the opportunities
Making things happen at pace was transformational. We were making decisions 83 per cent faster. The most important thing was that those decisions were stickier
Its mission, to accelerate sector innovation across track and train to increase productivity, improved performance, and enhanced passenger experience, is very much aligned to that of those at PA Consulting.
Tim said: “This is an opportunity to put passenger and freight customers first and at the heart of the conversation. Under rail reform there won’t be this invisible line between track and train, it will all be about how we can make the railway work better and what impact innovation can have. GBRX can be the platform to push that through.
“For example, PA is part of a consortium with TfL, Monorail, and Academia to develop a world first quantum-based rail positioning system for GNSS denied environments. TfL are able to run multiple trials because they ‘own’ the whole railway, train, track and operations, making them more agile. For the mainline, even running a one-off trial would have taken months of negotiations across multiple commercial parties, delaying progress and limiting opportunities for learning. We could get a lot more innovation delivered and deployed, if we just worked more collaboratively as an industry.”
Steven added: “In the rail industry we beat ourselves up when it comes to innovation, but actually there are lots of great things happening, some of which we are taking to the likes of the nuclear and national highways sectors.
“Having said that, there is the opportunity to be better at innovation, particularly now with purse strings tightening, but it is worth the effort, especially if we are to deliver a more efficient and cost effective industry.”
www.paconsulting.com/industries/transport
A new Rail Innovation Group (RIG) report highlights the critical role of start-ups and small digital companies in rail’s digital evolution.
The group’s Chair Liam Henderson explains more
The UK rail industry is undergoing a period of rapid transformation, driven by the need for greater efficiency, sustainability, and enhanced passenger experience. This transformation will continue through the period of reorganisation. At the forefront of this change are start-ups and small digital companies — these businesses are agile and innovative businesses, with the ability to bridge the gap between legacy rail systems and cutting-edge technology.
A new report from the RIG, titled Skills Beyond Scale, has found that while these companies have the skills and are pioneering solutions in data science, AI, automation, and customer-centric services, barriers remain to realising the benefits they could bring. The report was developed using the experiences and insights of RIG members.
The authors of the report call for the wider rail industry to leverage the deep expertise and diverse skill sets found within their membership, particularly in emerging technologies and digital innovation. These companies bring a wealth of diverse and innovative skills that go beyond simply building products - they are pivotal in inventing the solutions the industry needs to address its most pressing challenges.
Their ability to combine creativity with technical expertise enables them to develop groundbreaking technologies, often from the ground up, that tackle complex problems such as improving operational efficiency, enhancing passenger experience, and driving sustainability.
In short, they highlight that these capabilities position start-ups and small digital companies as invaluable partners in shaping the future of rail. With rapid technological advancements shaping the future of transport, the report shows how enabling small businesses to contribute is critical to maintaining the UK’s position as a leader in rail innovation.
SMEs: The hidden strength of the rail sector
Rail has long been dominated by large-scale
infrastructure projects and established players but as demonstrated in the report, smaller businesses have emerged as key drivers of digital transformation. They offer:
Expertise in data science and AI – Advanced analytics, predictive maintenance, and AI-driven optimisation tools are revolutionising rail operations.
Cross-industry innovation – SMEs are bringing in technology from other industriessuch as IoT, cloud computing, and automation - to solve long-standing rail challenges.
Customer-centric digital solutions –Passenger expectations are shifting, and SMEs are leading the way in Mobility as a Service (MaaS), AI-powered engagement, and real-time service improvements.
Sustainability and future technologies –
Many smaller firms are at the cutting edge of AI, IoT, and quantum technologies, helping to make rail greener and more efficient.
Despite these contributions, SMEs often struggle to navigate the complexities of rail procurement, access major contracts, or scale their solutions industry-wide. The report makes it clear that without strategic support, these challenges could slow down progress in key areas of digital transformation.
A call for action: The six priorities for Government and industry
To ensure the UK rail sector fully benefits from SME-led innovation, the report outlines six key recommendations for Government and industry leaders:
1. Support collaboration by establishing stronger links between major projects and small suppliers that can provide specialist technical expertise.
2. Invest in future skills by supporting AI, robotics, and customer engagement training to ensure the workforce remains future-ready.
3. Increase research and development funding, and expand investment in AI, data analytics, and sustainable solutions to accelerate digital transformation.
4. Strengthen public-private partnerships in a way that creates better mechanisms for knowledge-sharing, innovation funding, and the ability for small and micro businesses to be able to participate in large-scale projects.
5. Speed up regulatory reform, and in particular address some of the key procurement and compliance hurdles in order to make it easier for small and micro businesses to work within the rail sector.
6. Prioritise customer experience and work with the sector to develop passenger-first initiatives that align with the future of mobility.
Industry leaders respond to the findings
At the launch event, sponsored by technology company Ovinto, a number of industry leaders from both the rail and tech sectors called for targeted Government action to unlock SME-led innovation and keep the UK rail industry competitive.
Frederick Ronse, Founder & Executive Director of Ovinto, reinforced the importance of supporting SMEs in transforming the rail sector. He commented: “Ovinto is proud to support this vital research and the Skills Beyond Scale programme. We firmly believe that companies like ours can act as a bridge between legacy rail environments and new technologies. By working together, we improve efficiency for the whole sector.”
The research, which was led by RIG’s Director of Initiatives Deb Carson, confirms what we have long known: start-ups and small digital suppliers are the driving force behind rail innovation. These companies don’t just bring fresh ideas; they bring practical, deployable solutions that can modernise and futureproof the industry. The potential here is enormous and must be matched to the growing appetite for digital transformation to create more efficient, passengerfriendly, and sustainable rail services. The report demonstrates that these businesses bring agility, technical expertise, and creative problem-solving that large organisations often struggle to match. But without strategic Government support, much of this potential will remain untapped
For businesses working in data science, AI, digital infrastructure, or sustainability, the opportunity to contribute to the future of rail has never been greater. By working together - through partnerships, knowledge-sharing, and collaborative innovation - there is huge potential to accelerate the UK rail sector’s transition into the digital age.
With new technologies emerging at an unprecedented pace, it’s those who embrace digital transformation, support SME-led innovation, and foster collaborative growth that will shape the future of rail. Collaboration will be pivotal in maintaining rail’s competitiveness. These smaller tech and digital suppliers are not just implementers; they are visionaries whose ingenuity is essential for the industry’s evolution. If the rail industry wants to know what products will be coming into the market in a few years’ time, we would say look to what these starts ups are working on now. Equally, if rail organisations want access to more digital skills, they don’t have to look far: our advice would be to look to the grass roots of the existing supply chain.
While major operators and policymakers consider their next steps, those already engaging with innovative SMEs are positioning themselves ahead of the curve. With a strong network of tech pioneers, digital specialists, and customer-focused businesses, the RIG provides a valuable forum for collaboration, insight, and industry-wide transformation.
For more information about the Rail Innovation Group, to access the full report, or to join the group, visit www.railinnovationgroup.com.
While major operators and policymakers consider their next steps, those already engaging with innovative SMEs are positioning themselves ahead of the curve
Leon
Kong, Greater Anglia’s Head of Data
and
Innovation,
on how the operator is harnessing innovations in data and technology to drive meaningful change for customers and the wider business
For Leon Kong, this period of industry transformation is a once-in-alifetime opportunity to embed data, technology, and new ways of working into the railway sector, which he is keen to capitalise on.
“You cannot talk about track and train collaboration without addressing the tools we use to collaborate. These need to be rebuilt in a way that fully leverages technology and data,” said Greater Anglia’s Head of Data and Innovation.
“Rail data has historically been fragmented due to the industry’s complex structure and the systems and technology available. To unlock its full potential, data needs to be standardised and made interoperable so it can seamlessly power both customer-facing tools and operational tools.
“At Greater Anglia, we see data as the glue that reinforces industry cooperation and integration, and we want to lead the way in making this a reality.”
Leon said the operator has emerged from the machine age — marked by the rollout of a new train fleet between 2019 and 2024, modernised operational practices, and a refreshed brand identity launched at the start of that period. Together, these changes have helped position Greater Anglia among the top performers when it comes to service reliability, customer experience and financial returns to the taxpayer. It is also currently one of only a couple of train operators returning a premium to the public purse. Now, it is entering the information age.
Greater Anglia’s focus is on seeking marginal gains through innovation, by leveraging data to empower colleagues across the organisation and drive better decisions — not just at management level, but also throughout the organisation, including frontline colleagues.
“Greater Anglia is one of the few UK train operators with a fully digital fleet, which gives us an unprecedented opportunity to harness real-time data streams, such as telemetry and automated passenger counts,” he said.
“But innovation isn’t just about machine-generated data. Many core railway operational processes remain analogue, such as control centres making real-time decisions by phone, and train planning still done by pen and paper. The next frontier of transformation lies in digitising and integrating these processes, moving from scattered, manual decisionmaking to a structured, data-driven approach.”
Central to the information age is Greater Anglia’s Central Data Platform, which is breaking down operational silos, maintaining a single source of truth, and ensuring data accessibility, standardisation, and quality.
It is not just a data warehouse, but a full analytics platform, supporting dashboards, reporting, automation, and external data sharing. The latter is particularly critical to meeting growing expectations for cross-industry collaboration and data sharing.
“The Central Data Platform is essential to facilitating true cross-functional working across
departments,” explained Leon. “Take fleet data, for example. In the past, it was seen as relevant only to fleet teams, but in reality, it also plays a critical role in train service delivery, customer experience, and more. We’ve already invested in the hardware to capture this data, so the next step is making sure we have the right software and systems to put the data to use.
“The way we share and access data plays a big role in how people collaborate and make decisions. It influences how operational goals evolve and how teams align around them. Having a better flow of information in the hands of customers and colleagues
empowers the frontline teams to make more effective decisions.”
An example Leon gives is the passenger counting devices installed on every train in the Greater Anglia fleet. With complete and consistent data now available, there was a clear opportunity to use it more strategically. This led to the creation of a crossfunctional forum between Greater Anglia’s Revenue and Train Planning teams to leverage the data to better align train services with actual passenger demand.
Additionally, democratising access to the data via self-serve dashboards has allowed area managers to use it to inform customer service staffing on event days, as well as adjust train service stopping patterns and timings for football matches based on intra-day demand variations.
“This example perfectly illustrates our philosophy that data should not just inform high-level strategy but should drive better decision-making at all levels. When you create the right conditions for data to be used throughout the organisation, real benefits can emerge quickly,” he said.
“One of our customer service managers asked for passenger numbers on a particular set of services to investigate football matchday demand. I sent him the dashboard, along with a couple of screenshots to highlight the key points and thought nothing of it.
“He was really impressed and ended up replanning a number of event day short-term timetables based on the data. By adjusting timings and interchanges, he was able to ease the crowds without the requirement for additional resources. It was a small interaction that stuck with me as an instance where putting data in the right hands immediately delivered value.”
The Central Data Platform is just one half of the puzzle. The other is building tools which are fit for purpose — in terms of driving collaboration and supporting the flow of information at the pace operational decisions demand.
“So much of railway operations still happen through someone yelling down the phone, scribbling a note, or sending an email asking if a train can be moved from here to there,” he said. “These processes are ripe for improvement through better use of data, bringing everything together into tools that support day-to-day decision making, whether in a control room, out on the ground, or in providing customer service. These tools will augment colleagues’ judgment by giving them faster access to the information they need, helping them make more confident decisions in real-time.
“On top of the data foundations that we’re building, there’s huge potential to use AI to make these tools even smarter. It could support schedule optimisation or help manage the sheer volume of text we generate in the railway. Control centres are constantly producing streams of messages, and maintainers log detailed fault reports throughout the day. AI could help sort, prioritise, and surface the right information so people can act faster and with more clarity.”
These concepts are already being put into practice. Current pilots underway at the operator include using large language models (LLMs) to summarise operational messages from the control centre into digestible formats for management decision-
making; and developing a scheduling optimisation AI decision-support tool to help the Fleet Control team deliver the train service timetable while balancing the maintenance and servicing needs of the fleet.
“Robust data foundations must come first, and AI must also be integrated into workflows, not just deployed for its own sake,” he said. “Notwithstanding that, AI holds immense transformative potential if implemented (and adopted) correctly.
“Fleet Control, for instance, is still a highly manual process. We see a real opportunity to introduce technology that supports colleagues directly, especially during high-pressure situations like service disruption, when decisions need to be made quickly and with confidence. Again, the aim is not to replace human judgment, but to strengthen it by putting all the right data and insights at colleagues’ fingertips so they can make clear, informed decisions under pressure.
“Crucially, any tools we introduce must integrate seamlessly into how people already work. That is why we are taking a careful, phased approach. This is a safety-critical environment, and any changes must be shaped with and for the people doing the job. The goal is to genuinely ease the load and deliver tools that add real value to daily operations.”
Despite the challenges and uncertainty facing the industry, Leon is full of excitement and optimism for the journey ahead. He believes that the evolving railway landscape presents a vital opportunity to improve integration and interoperability — both between track and train, and between the railway and the wider public transport network.
“This is a once-in-a-generation chance to modernise workflows using truly fit-for-purpose technology,” he said. “Take disruption management, for example. Imagine a world where train operators’ control teams, Network Rail’s signallers, and other stakeholders can collaborate using a unified, realtime digital control panel, instead of relying on phone calls during disruption.
“Or take infrastructure monitoring. What if Network Rail could access onboard sensor data from all trains to monitor track conditions around the clock, and carry out proactive maintenance before problems arise?”
He describes data sharing as the backbone of a one-system railway and says that the industry has
already made important strides. One example is the Department for Transport’s recent requirement for train operators to share passenger count data openly via the Rail Data Marketplace — information that is highly sought after by stakeholders such as local Government and Network Rail.
Leon added: “At Greater Anglia, we are taking proactive bilateral steps to advance the vision of open data sharing and collaboration. For example, we are sharing our fleet CCTV data with Network Rail to support trackside vegetation management.
“But realising this vision isn’t just about setting out grand ideas. It’s also about how we work day to day. Internally, we are staying deliberately agile, rapidly testing potential use cases with functional teams, and iterating from prototypes to outcomes in weeks, not months. Whether it is analytics or operational tooling, our focus is always on getting the right solution into people’s hands quickly.
“Externally, we’re constantly engaging with partners across the industry to share what we’ve tried, what works, and where it might be scaled up as a shared solution. That’s how we turn good ideas into practical change, not just for Greater Anglia, but for the railway as a whole.”
You cannot talk about track and train collaboration without addressing the tools we use to collaborate. These need to be rebuilt in a way that fully leverages technology and data
Kelly Warburton, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) has recently been recognised in the Northern PoWEr Women Awards 2025 Powerlist. She reflects on her career and the journey ahead for the proposed train, railway infrastructure and technology testing facility in Wales
It is initiatives like the Innovation in Railway Construction programme and work with Primary Engineer in local primary schools that highlight the importance of the GCRE to the project’s CCO Kelly Warburton.
The former recently saw more than 250 guests from across the rail industry visit GCRE’s site to experience the latest in innovative rail technologies. It was the culmination of a competition funded by the Department for Business and Trade in the UK Government and delivered by Innovate UK, with teams installing their projects at the site in South Wales.
The latter involved bringing engineering into the classrooms of 14 local schools, with nearly 800 pupils going through the programme of making model rail vehicles, a project designed to encourage young people to take an interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and to understand more about the GCRE development.
“Companies are already winning contracts and finding new investment as a result of the Innovation in Railway Construction programme and I was so pleased to hear first-hand about the impact it is having,” explained Kelly.
“The Primary Engineer work was amazing, particularly seeing the children’s eyes opened to what the rail industry can offer. They loved learning about rail and were overwhelmed and excited by the opportunities of GCRE.”
On what is the 200th anniversary of the first passenger railway, 2025 looks set to be a watershed one for GCRE, which has the potential to become Europe’s leading hub for rail and sustainable mobility innovation, an international magnet for world class rail research, testing and showcasing of next generation rolling stock, infrastructure and cuttingedge new technologies.
The proposed train, railway infrastructure and technology testing facility, located in Onllwyn, South Wales, could become the UK’s first ever net zero in operation railway and support the innovations needed to decarbonise the UK and European
It’s rare that you get the chance to work on a project that is so unique and at the same time will be so transformative for the rail industry and for the communities it serves
railway, at the same time rebuilding local prosperity creating 1,100 highly skilled jobs.
“When it comes to rail innovation the UK doesn’t lack good ideas and highly skilled people, but what we hear time and time again is that you design a great product, have a fantastic prototype and then you hit a wall when it comes to a real live railway environment to go and take that product for testing and development,” she said. “Rail innovation is one of the most important things to move the industry forward, and GCRE can unlock the structural barrier of a high-quality physical facility to do that testing and research.
“There has been a lot of interest in the UK and further afield from an array of organisations both small and large, manufacturers and operators. It really highlights the importance of this facility, one that will put the UK on the map.”
Receiving significant support and assistance from both the Welsh and UK Governments, two local authorities and the local community, substantial progress has been made over the last seven years in developing GCRE from a concept on the page to what it is today – a shovel-ready scheme able to get going as soon as the private investment process is completed.
“Once the funding has been secured we will go straight into the build and alongside that contractualise all of the conversations we’ve had with all of those Memorandum of Understandings and put a series of customer commitments in place to start delivering services when we’re open,” said Kelly.
“We’ve done a significant amount of preparation work and the key thing for us now is to start translating that industry momentum into tangible commercial success at our facility. The conversations we’ve had with Government, manufacturers, the rail supply chain and the many clients who are extremely eager to begin using the site give us confidence that we have a very successful business model at GCRE. They have plans for what they are planning on doing in 2027/28/29, and so the next important stage for us, once we’ve secured the funding, is to outline the schedule by which we go from the funding approval, to construction and then into operation.”
Over the last few years outline planning permission has been secured for the facility; a skilled core team
has been built, and a 700-hectare site has been purchased – the former Nant Helen mining site in South Wales – on which preparatory earthworks have been progressed.
In that time clients including Hitachi Rail, CAF, Network Rail, Transport for Wales and Thales are among those which have committed to take testing and research time at the GCRE facility once it is operational. In all, more than 200 companies across the international rail supply chain have indicated their desire to use the unique-to-Europe infrastructure that GCRE will have on site.
From the start of the journey, the model for GCRE has been to use the public funding that had been set aside for the project – £50 million from the Welsh Government and £20 million grant from the UK Government – to prepare the development to a point where the £400 million project could be taken to market. “We announced at the start of this year that we are in discussions with a potential funder and that a huge amount of work is underway on the due diligence to turn interest into a final deal,” commented Kelly. “We’ve used the support we’ve had from Government intelligently – to purchase the land, to secure planning, to build a skilled team and to develop momentum in the market for what we are doing.
“Going forward, there is a huge amount of work to do and we will have a different set of shareholders. But what we have set out in terms of our four missions including why we want to do this and what we want to deliver won’t change. What is important is finding the right partner to help realise our vision. It has been an incredible journey so far and that will only get more exciting over the next few years.”
Kelly admits it has already been a rollercoaster of a ride since joining GCRE nearly three years ago, but one she wouldn’t change for the world. After more than 17 years at Unipart Rail, latterly as its UK and Europe Managing Director, she relished a new challenge, and the remit to develop and deliver the commercial strategy for one of the most creative and interesting infrastructure developments in Europe was too good an opportunity to miss.
“I met Simon Jones (Chief Executive Officer at GCRE) and was swept up by how enthusiastic he
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Rail innovation is one of the most important things to move the industry forward, and GCRE can unlock the structural barrier of a high-quality physical facility to do that testing and research
was about the project and the more I learnt about it the more I wanted to be involved in that adventure,” explained Kelly. “I took a chance leaving a stable role at a company I’d enjoyed working at for more than 17 years and was very aware that if we didn’t get the funding there would be no job in the future.
“The role though was a good fit for me personally and it provided the opportunity to take on a new and exciting challenge in rail where I could make an impact, bringing all my experience, relationships, networks and skills and to apply them to a project which has social justice at its heart.
“It’s been an amazing three years and we have built a great team. Nobody has come into GCRE just for the job, everyone is here because they want to make a difference and to help realise the bigger GCRE vision. And it really has been a journey, especially taking into account the challenges of a change of UK Government, and the macro-economic instability we have seen. However, everyone continues to pull in the same direction and while there have been difficult days, it has been both fun and rewarding - and I can see it only getting better.” Kelly is very modest about her own impact on the project and her nearly 25 year career in the railways, instead quick to put the emphasis on the “brilliant people” she works with, and her appreciation of the opportunities given to her from an industry she fell into when she joined Alstom Transport as an Commercial Account Manager in 2001.
That appreciation might explain her willingness to go above and beyond for the industry. Alongside the work at GCRE, and the work with Primary Engineer and local schools, Kelly has just become a trustee for Women in Rail, describing it as an honour and a personal passion. Kelly says, while the industry has made progress, there’s still a long way to go in achieving true diversity and inclusion. “Women in Rail’s vision is inspiring, and I feel strongly about being part of the movement to drive real change. By fostering mentorship, support networks, and advocacy, we can encourage more women to join and, crucially, stay in the rail sector—helping to build a stronger, more inclusive industry for the future. “
Taking that into account, it should come as no shock that she was named in this year’s Northern PoWER Women Awards Power List, a celebration of exceptional role models and pioneers of positive change.
“I don’t know who nominated me, but it was very kind of them and I was chuffed to pieces to make the list,” said Kelly. “It can be hard to talk about you own successes and perhaps easier to focus on things I think I could have done better.
“At the awards’ event, listening to the incredible stories of others on the list was truly inspiring. I found myself wondering how I measured up to such accomplished women but I suppose I have been in the industry for 25 years and have built up quite a bit of experience and like to spend time sharing that with
other people both inside and outside of the sector.
“I do try and go out of my way to help anybody because I think people deserve an opportunity. People have personally supported and mentored me throughout my career and I like to do the same. Indeed, the same can be said about GCRE itself. We are essentially a start-up company which has received a significant amount of backing and support from organisations nationally and internationally, including local councils and the UK and Welsh Governments.
“At GCRE we have the chance to develop the business how we want it to be. We’ve not inherited anything; we’re designing it, building it and growing it as an organisation that is going to be there for the long term. It’s so important therefore that GCRE mirrors the communities it serves and is reflective of everybody in society. I want everybody to think ‘I can work there irrespective of who I am and where I’m from.’
“For me, working at the GCRE is a career highlight. It’s rare that you get the chance to work on a project that is so unique and at the same time will be so transformative for the rail industry and for the communities it serves. I see my time here as the opportunity to use the learning I have gained throughout my career to make GCRE what it can be – the very best rail innovation facility in the world and operating in a way that has social justice, diversity and equity at its heart.”
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Jacob Attwood, Managing Consultant at Vendigital, explains how innovation needs to start with having a clear vision of what it is you are trying to achieve and then looking at what is needed to reach it
Innovation is a much wider topic than just being completely technology driven. That’s the message from Jacob Attwood, Managing Consultant at cost transformation consultant Vendigital, specialist in procurement, supply chain, operating strategy and cost and value engineering; making businesses more cost and operationally efficient.
“It all starts with having a clear vision of what you are trying to achieve,” he explained. “Innovation is about thinking through what we want to look like in five, 10, 20 years, where are we today and how can we make technology, people and processes work together as one seamless, scalable system.
“That is the starting point for me. What is the overarching theme or ambition that we are trying to achieve and therefore how can this system create innovation to deliver our vision. It’s not just about developing technology, but about building a culture that can also drive an organisation to the end objective.”
Jacob gives ticketing as an example. The Government is looking towards a new ticketing solution but are they asking questions that will drive innovation?
He said: “We need a better ticketing solution for passengers, but is the real question about finding the right solution for today, or should we first define what we want the railway to be like in 20 years? If we position rail as the backbone of UK mobility over the next two decades, it transforms ticketing from a short-term solution into part of a larger vision. This shift creates an exciting challenge for technologists, engineers, and investors, to develop innovative solutions that shape the future of seamless, sustainable, and intelligent transport.
“Overall it is about taking a step back and looking
at where you want to be as an organisation or industry, what is motivating you to grow and improve the passenger experience and then building systems to bridge the gap and drive innovation.”
Driving innovative thinking is important to Vendigital, which delivers benefits to clients’ bottom line by transforming their cost base, at pace. Measurable and sustainable cost reductions are achieved by combining its consulting experience and proprietary digital platform – through its Insights360 methodology.
Its operational specialists work with its data experts to convert unstructured operational data into actionable, operational intelligence to identify and implement specific cost saving opportunities.
“We specialise in data driven consultancy projects, explained Jacob. “Our bread and butter activities are projects that can be delivered through data to drive real benefits for the client. We drive the strategy, do the delivery, and then we underpin all of those activities with tools, solutions and data driven analytics that embed the benefit long after the consultancy project has been delivered.”
It’s an exciting time to be involved in the company which was acquired by Siemens Advanta at the end of 2022, the professional services business unit of Siemens, providing access to an unrivalled combination of deep domain knowledge, the strong Siemens technology stack and a powerful ecosystem of partners around the globe.
“It’s an exciting time to be involved in the rail industry particularly with track and train being brought closer together. This can only help bring organisations together to work to the one common goal that drives a more effective technology or culture through the industry, delivering a more effective solution for the passenger.”
www.vendigital.com
Innovation is about thinking through what we want to look like in five, 10, 20 years, where are we today and how can we make technology, people and processes work together as one seamless, scalable system
The second Connected Places Summit has been held in London with 285 speakers and more than 1,100 delegates, with many more watching online. Rail Director reports from the two-day event
“Innovation is a team game and we can’t do this on our own. Collaboration is in our DNA and you are our greatest resource, please keep telling us what we need to be doing, what is working and what we need to change.”
That was the message from Erika Lewis, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Connected Places Catapult addressing more than 1,100 in person and 1,000 online attendees at this year’s Connected Places Summit, which was hosted by the organisation.
“This was an event that convened delegates from Government, industry and academia to discuss how we can make better connected places for people across the UK,” she added. “Thank you for being a part of the energy and the conversation.
“As I start my second year as CEO I am really
excited about the year ahead. We have a firm foundation to build on, a clear plan for unlocking the opportunities of innovation and boosting economic growth across the whole of the UK.”
Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for transport, the built environment, cities and local growth, brings together the disciplines of rail, road, and aviation, alongside housing and the art of place leadership.
Across the two days, there were more than 285 speakers, 85 sessions, 61 exhibitors, with the event focusing on innovation helping to drive jobs and growth in local and regional economies, with discussions around energy networks, transport systems and cities, digital technologies and new ways of doing business.
Speaking on the opening day, keynote speaker
Sir Andrew Haines OBE, Chief Executive at Network Rail, updated attendees on the progression of Great British Railways (GBR) and his hopes Royal Assent on the Railway Bill will be granted by the middle of next year.
He also highlighted the launch of GBRX, established as a strategic innovation body to overcome the barriers to adoption of advanced technologies on Britain’s railway.
“This is my personal attempt to listen to innovators and why it is so hard to do business in the rail sector,” he explained. “We are very risk-averse because we are very safety conscious, but we’re also very heavily regulated and under a lot of scrutiny and actually we’ve got £600 billion of assets which means we’ve got to be quite careful where we spend our money.
“GBRX is my attempt to say this is a community
that you can engage with, which will be less risk averse that will create a clean platform for you, but you’ve still got to persuade us there is a case.”
During the summit, Connected Places Catapult announced that two organisations with rail-related technology had been selected to bring their products to trial through the Station Innovation Zone, a partnership with Network Rail and supported by Innovate UK.
The programme has already supported 20 innovative small to medium-sized enterprises, with Journey Alerts and Ampetronic the latest additions to the list to develop proposals to enhance the passenger experience at Bristol Temple Meads.
Andrew added: “Collaboration and innovation are crucial to our future success, and we’re pleased to be working with partners such as Connected Places Catapult. Through our partnership, we have created the excellent Station Innovation Zone at Bristol Temple Meads station, enabling us to test and trial new technologies that are helping to improve the passenger experience.
“I really love this because of the collaboration effect, but also the fact we’re almost immersing people in technology and with GBR being regionally based maybe we should have one of those in each region drawing in SMEs and innovators on that regional basis. You can’t run GBR from a big national centre, that is not the way to respond.”
Strategic partners for this year’s Connected Places Summit were the Department for Transport and Hitachi. The headline partner was DNV, and supporting partners were Places for London and the Unyte Group, with the summit also supported by Innovate UK.
Andrew Barr, President of Hitachi Europe, explained the importance of collaboration to delegates. He said: “The UK has been a major part of the business for over 30 years. Being part of the ecosystem is very important and we need to work alongside a lot of partners to achieve what we want to achieve.
“We have changed our footprint over the last few years quite significantly, and that is a key part of the focus because we believe being part of the ecosystem is really important. We are very much focused on innovation, in the UK over 6,000 people work for Hitachi in the rail and energy businesses and to do that we need to work alongside lots of partners to enable us to achieve some of the things that are very important for our region.”
Andrew said decarbonisation and electrification are among the focuses in the UK.
“There needs to be lots of focus on delivering that in the right way and supporting some of the changes that we’ve got socially to help us to be able to be part of that in the future,” he added. “Our business is very much focused on social innovation and to achieve that we need to be partners with local businesses and part of the ecosystem as well as innovating to enable our products to be part of that, but also finding new ways in delivering some of the goals we’ve set out to achieve.”
Further high-profile speakers addressing delegates over the two days included the Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Steve Rotheram,
Glasgow City Council Leader Councillor Susan Aitken, Chief Executive of The Crown Estate Dan Labbad, London Transport Commissioner Andy Lord, and the Chief Executive of HS2 Mark Wild.
Mark was speaking as part of a panel discussing the topic of a multimodal vision for innovation in transport, during which he highlighted the importance of projects having a clear purpose, and that getting it right at the start is much more important than the middle and the end.
“HS2’s purpose is not about speed, it is about economic growth, connectivity and better journeys,” he said. “I believe projects like HS2 and the Elizabeth line are acts of will, acts of will by coalitions of people and alongside purpose you need this cohesion and to remove organisational barriers.
“There are a lot of egocentric behaviours in projects, people rally to their own flag. The key is to be purposeful as a coalition. Intrinsic in that is a mantra of radical transparency. Transparency is all in these projects.”
This year’s event focused on how unlocking innovation can help to drive jobs and growth in local and regional economies; with discussions around transport systems, urban planning, digital technologies, and new models of investment.
Delegates also heard from innovative small to medium sized companies developing new innovative solutions, as well as academics involved in research, and investors looking for the next breakthrough technologies.
Erika concluded: “The conversations that we’ve had over the two days will help drive a step-change in how the UK commercialises research and innovation in places with the greatest potential for economic growth. Only by working together can we unlock the innovations that will create truly connected places.”
Only by working together can we unlock the innovations that will create truly connected places
Dr.-Eng Mike Rustell CEng MICE, Lecturer at Brunel University and Chief Executive Offi cer of Inframatic, writes
about the importance of embedding assurance, traceability, and accountability into AI
The current challenge
The rail sector stands at an unprecedented crossroads of transformation. The move towards Great British Railways, the Government’s 10-year National Infrastructure Strategy, the newly published AI Playbook, and the post-COVID recovery are all converging at a time when the industry faces mounting maintenance backlogs and reliability challenges.
With increasing project complexity, constrained budgets, and pressure to deliver safely and on time, AI represents perhaps the most powerful tool availableyet the fundamental question remains: can its outputs be trusted, verified, and assured?
This isn’t just a valid concern - it’s the central issue. The barrier to AI adoption in rail isn’t capability but assurance.
Present benefits and future potential
The immediate benefits of AI in rail engineering are already visible in rapid analysis of design documentation, automated compliance checks, and time savings on repetitive tasks. Current tools can highlight relevant standards, extract critical guidance from thousands of pages of regulations, and generate design summaries with unprecedented speed.
The longer-term opportunity extends further: AI can learn from previous projects, interpret evolving standards in real time, and proactively flag design risks across disciplines. It can unify siloed data, increase transparency, and improve safety - all while reducing cognitive load for engineers.
Most large language models don’t inherently verify their outputs’ truthfulness, producing plausiblesounding but potentially unvalidated answers. This presents a significant challenge in highly-regulated environments.
These models also lack caution, unable to properly quantify uncertainty or communicate confidence levels in ways engineers and regulators expect. A confident-sounding answer from a model trained on general web text remains essentially a probabilistic guess -falling short of safety-critical infrastructure standards. That’s why assurance must be designed into AI systems from the beginning, with explainable outputs, traceable data, and recommendations open to audit, challenge, and verification.
Accountability matters more than speed
Without robust data provenance and transparent reasoning that welcomes scrutiny, AI poses a greater risk than opportunity. The industry needs critical, accountable and explainable outputs - not just faster ones. In a domain where design decisions carry long-term social, environmental, legal and financial consequences, every assumption, calculation, and reference must be fully traceable to its source. Traceability isn’t optional; it’s essential for reliability.
Such systems are of course complex to develop and need both technical and business leadership to be successful. Trust is one aspect, but the biggest risks often exist between the lines – the things that can only be seen from a bird’s eye view and with the kind of
The need for assured AI aligns with the UK Government’s broader initiatives. The 10-year National Infrastructure Strategy sets ambitious targets, including a 25 per cent reduction in infrastructure costs, yet makes no direct mention of AI. This is particularly notable given the Government’s concurrent release of the AI Playbook for responsible adoption in the public sector.
This disconnect between infrastructure strategy and AI initiatives signals a planning gap that the rail sector has an opportunity to close - by integrating accountable, traceable AI systems that can help deliver on both agendas.
AI is already shaping how rail infrastructure is designed, built, and maintained. The question now is not whether AI can be adopted, but how it can be implemented responsibly.
As the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) oversees infrastructure strategy implementation, the rail sector can lead by example. By embedding assurance, traceability, and accountability into AI systems from the outset, the industry can ensure that AI serves as a reliable partner in delivering safer, more efficient, and more sustainable rail networks for the future.
www.inframatic.ai
we’re with you every step of the way
RSSB. Accelerating the adoption of new technology
Rail organisations often face challenges in adopting new technologies due to costs and associated risks. At RSSB, we’re transforming these challenges into opportunities through innovative solutions to complex issues.
We are enhancing safety through advanced risk management and boosting efficiency with optimised asset utilisation and data-driven insights.
Furthermore, we are driving progress towards a sustainable railway.
And we’re looking ahead to prepare the industry for the future. By leveraging technology, we’re ready to tackle emerging risks and paving the way for a safer, more efficient rail system.
Explore how our initiatives are driving adoption of technology across the railway: www.rssb.co.uk/adoptingtechnology
Fiona Neoh, Professional Head of Asset Integrity at RSSB, explains how a new set of processes promises to transform how the industry spots and learns from incidents, failures and faults, and boosts safety
Control command and signalling (CCS) systems are made up of multiple different subsystems that all need to work together, both to signal and to protect trains on our rail network.
However, this is a challenging task as the network of organisations involved is complex and fragmented. Trackside and onboard CCS equipment is managed by different organisations, while in-cab signalling means more equipment is moving from the trackside on to trains, changing the responsibilities for organisations and the risks
Transparency about data sharing principles is essential for the whole industry
they’re accountable for managing.
The large number of organisations, sometimes with competing interests, involved in delivering a safe CCS system can make information sharing difficult. Equally, there may be organisations in different parts of the country that are either investigating or trying to manage the same problems. If information isn’t shared, opportunities to collaborate or share solutions to issues are missed.
That means that particular CCS issues could happen repeatedly, but, as they occur in different regions and on different routes, that repetition goes
undetected because there is no system to analyse data at a national level.
Bringing organisations together
This is where the National CCS Defect Recording, Analysis and Corrective Action System (DRACAS) comes in. It will bring organisations together by allowing them to share data about the different CCS subsystems they use and generate insights on where one issue may be causing challenges for other organisations.
This will help everyone spot underlying issues and correct faults and defects in systems far more efficiently and quickly than today, in turn improving safety. By analysing data from multiple organisations and subsystems, it will also spot hidden trends and opportunities to stop issues happening at all.
Organisations might experience issues at a local level, but the National CCS DRACAS will enable them to agree and implement steps to tackle issues at a national system level.
It’s estimated that the National CCS DRACAS will save the industry £231 million over ten years, as well as avoiding the estimated £351 million cost of doing nothing. Similar systems exist in aviation, and in rail at a regional level, but, until now, not across the national rail network. The industry has long wanted the National CCS DRACAS, but creating it is a highly complex task and many different CCS subsystems are in use.
RSSB, as the independent organisation bringing stakeholders together, has been at the centre of this work to agree what the National CCS DRACAS should do, how it will work, and what stakeholders need to do to help make it a reality.
Many organisations already work together to deliver CCS subsystems such as the European Train Control System (ETCS), including infrastructure managers, freight and passenger railway undertakings, and rolling stock and system suppliers and maintainers.
When a subsystem fails, the underlying cause may be outside the part of the subsystem for which an individual organisation is responsible. For example, in the case of a CCS subsystem on a freight locomotive, the freight operator might need to talk to its rolling stock supplier, which in turn might need to talk to a CCS system maintainer, who might then need to contact another supplier. The freight operator might also want to speak to other organisations, such as other freight companies, about the subsystem failure. The result is many different organisations talking to each other about the same event, but in different ways, and sharing different information, again in different ways.
This complicated situation means defects in a subsystem could repeatedly cause issues for different organisations and components, and in different locations, but the trend goes undetected.
The National CCS DRACAS is a management system that includes a set of processes designed to stop this happening. It is a way of sharing and harnessing data to diagnose, correct and prevent faults, failures and
defects far more comprehensively than is possible today. By doing this, it will boost safety and reduce risk.
It works by distributing information between organisations in an agreed way, helping them to investigate root causes, agree how to co-ordinate solutions to failures and avoid having them happen again. By helping to analyse data from multiple organisations, it also flags up previously hidden trends, pinpoints opportunities to improve, and identifies effective ways to correct underlying issues in CCS subsystems.
Once the National CCS DRACAS is in place, when an organisation reports a subsystem failure, the system will then inform other organisations with a duty of cooperation to manage shared risk. It will also tell them about any similar failures that have occurred before and highlight what was done to correct them. In this way, the National CCS DRACAS will help identify connections between events and find corrective actions and root causes more quickly.
To define how this will happen in practice, RSSB has brought organisations together to agree how the National CCS DRACAS will work. Using a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach, RSSB experts have created a system model that documents the processes involved and have developed a Concept of Operations with industry, overseen by the National DRACAS Group, that shows how the system could work. This responded to industry concerns, for instance about sharing data with competitors.
The Concept of Operations sets out processes, including roles and responsibilities. These include who does what in the chain of events when organisations share data with the system or extract information from it.
In 2023, RSSB also published an updated standard – RIS-0707-CCS – which sets out requirements on the National CCS DRACAS as well as duty holders responsible for CCS subsystems. In 2024, RSSB’s Asset Integrity Group (AIG) worked with around 50 stakeholders, including infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, suppliers and cross-industry groups to define a roadmap of projects to implement the National CCS DRACAS. They also covered topics like the principles of reporting and sharing data.
In March 2025, RSSB published the Data Sharing Charter, outlining how organisations will share and use data through the National CCS DRACAS. This is particularly important, as transparency about data sharing principles is essential for the whole industry to have trust in the National CCS DRACAS.
There’s still much to do and implementing the National CCS DRACAS is a complex programme that needs clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The roadmap of projects will structure its next steps. For instance, this year, RSSB will be working in partnership with industry to develop the first issue of a value driver tool which will help individual organisations work out the benefit to them of being part of the National CCS DRACAS.
If information isn’t shared, opportunities to collaborate or share solutions to issues are missed
Jen
Clare, Service Delivery Director at Lumo, discusses creating the right culture to look after colleagues and deliver for the customer
Jen Clare is the first to admit she thrives on disruption.
“A disruption for me is the time to shine and an opportunity to do something different to make a difference,” explained Lumo’s Service Delivery Director. “Take overhead wires coming down as an example, although it is something out of our control, we should still be able to make a customer’s journey as decent as it possibly can be.”
Since 2021 Lumo has been operating between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh. A recent report found that the open access operator has helped to generate more than six million new rail journeys, encouraging people to switch from air travel to rail.
What has been particularly pleasing for Jen is the culture created at the operator and the impact it is having on passengers, with a survey last year revealing the East Coast Main Line operator had achieved a 96 per cent overall satisfaction rate among its customers.
“The key to success is in understanding your
audience, what they need and expect and then looking at how that can be delivered,” she explained.
“Look at each train service with a people centric lens of the customers, an attitude which I learnt over time is worth its weight in gold.
“Someone has spent the money on a ticket with Lumo so we’ve got a responsibility to do a good job for them. But we’ve also got to look after our colleagues which is why we have tried to create an open culture and if there is any disruption, colleagues will get personal contact from an on-call manager checking in to check if they are ok and if there’s anything that can be done for them.
“Those basic human interactions are massively important and as well as being the right thing to do, you also get a lot more from your team. People will only raise something if they feel there is a genuine need for it to be different, or they might have a really good idea that if we don’t listen, it could be a missed opportunity to make things better.”
It is the ideas from colleagues that Jen finds particularly important. One successful example was
when she challenged the team to come up with an idea to raise awareness of the dangers of trespassing on the railway and the importance of staying behind the yellow line at railway stations when trains arrive and depart.
“We partnered with Metrocentre creating a mini station in the Platinum Mall, engaging with the community with a family friendly approach which we hope has educated and encouraged safe behaviours,” she said. “The concept wasn’t a new thing, but how we did it was, and it came down to tapping into the experience and ideas of colleagues.
“We’re always coming up with ideas and we have various groups set up at Lumo to tackle issues or if we want to do something a little different. To have the most success it has to be a team effort. A lot of the ideas that people come up with are really good, they just don’t know how to deliver them, so it is my job to help unlock them.”
It all comes back to that commitment to deliver transformative growth and setting new industry standards in modern rail travel, something
The key to success is in understanding your audience, what they need and expect and then looking at how that can be delivered
cemented by the organisation’s recent appointment of Rachel Firth as its Customer Experience and Innovation Manager. Her mandate is to redefine the customer experience by leveraging cutting-edge technology, actionable insights, and a relentless focus on inclusivity and sustainability.
“There is so much change around the industry at the minute, but that is a massive opportunity for us to do things differently and learn from some of the pain points we’ve had in the past,” added Jen. “Being digital only is one challenge facing the industry. We should never really need paper in this day and age, which is why we don’t have a printer at our headquarters. If we are going to be true to sustainability and finding innovative solutions then we’re going to be true to it otherwise it is a tick box exercise, and I’m not doing tick box.
“We launched Lumo through COVID which forced our hand to be digital, training up the staff and bringing a team together in the pandemic digitally. I don’t think that will have been done elsewhere in the rail industry, so we’ve proven a point that it can be done. If we can be influential in the industry in a positive way than I’m all over it.”
Jen has been part of the rail industry for 20 years, a decade at Network Rail starting as a PPS Assistant, before moving onto roles including Signaller and Local Operations Manager, and then at LNER as a Duty Service Delivery Manager, before joining Lumo in 2021.
“I love working in the rail industry and it all started by chance in my first proper job at Network Rail as part of a team putting the weekly operating notices with all the possessions in together. I learnt a lot from that and since then have tried all sorts of things.
“I really want to see the industry thrive and particularly at Lumo I like the fact it is such a small
team and a lean operation which has given me the ability to know every single person in my team whether that is a customer driver, ambassador, planning team; having that closeness has given the organisation the ability to create this great culture.”
Four years since Lumo first started operation and there are no signs of things slowing down, not that Jen would want it any other way. There are plans for extra services in the December timetable, and also talks to extend some of its London to Edinburgh trains to and from Glasgow.
“Life at Lumo has been fast paced and it is such a vibrant business to be part of with an amazing team willing to get stuck in and deliver,” she said. “Important to being successful in the future will be keeping going with the culture and seeing how far we can push that one team ethos.
“It is vital that what we do at Lumo is people centric and that every person in the team knows what their contribution is to our success. We’re in it together, not just with Lumo but also the wider railway industry. Network Rail is going to be going through quite significant changes. I want us to be part of that with them and help them to shape it.
“Overall, I am a big believer that if you treat people right, they will treat you right and that is both colleagues and customers alike. We’ve got to grab hold of the opportunities in the most significant transformation in the rail industry for several decades, making the most of it.
“What I’m particularly enjoying is seeing people from outside the industry joining the industry and knocking it out of the park. Their curiosity is so important. I love it when someone asks why we do that; it makes you question why they are asking and is potentially making you see a different way of doing something. That is how innovation is born.”
Steve Muscat and Theo Mantzioros explain how UK Power Networks Services is bringing innovation to the UK rail industry, improving performance, safety, reliability and efficiency
Innovation is a driving force behind UK Power Networks Services’ performance, ensuring that the electricity networks it designs, builds, owns, operates and maintains are the safest, most reliable and cost-efficient, leading the way in tackling net zero and the energy system transition challenges.
Working with the likes of Network Rail, London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and London St. Pancras Highspeed, the organisation is leading the way with new technologies and innovation, at a time when increased demand is putting pressure on the associated energy infrastructure.
The organisation is introducing technologies to reduce the energy demand on the network such as regenerative braking and addressing the challenges around resilience. In addition, UK Power Networks Services is investigating solutions such as energy storage and renewable generation to improve efficiencies and reduce carbon, as well as preparations for the impact of the digital railway.
“We’re vastly experienced across the railway sector, not only working with clients on designing and building projects with our in-house engineers, but also in operating and maintaining them,” said Steve Muscat, the organisation’s Head of Engineering. “This gives us a valuable insight and a platform to continue to build on.”
Theo Mantzioros, Head of Systems Design, added: “Our clients are looking to electrify their assets and at
the same time looking at sustainability, highlighting the importance of electrifying their operations, something we can provide.
“It’s an exciting time to be at UK Power Networks Services, both in terms of some of the projects and innovation we’re developing, but also seeing the new generation of engineers that are joining us. We have a vital role to play in ensuring the national critical infrastructure keeps running.”
UK Power Networks Services provides energy infrastructure technology consulting, financing, major project delivery, design and build, operation & maintenance and asset management, with experience in distributed energy resources and the integration of new technologies such as electric vehicle infrastructure, battery storage, embedded generation and microgrids.
Theo and Steve have spoken to Rail Director about the organisation’s success in the rail industry including designing, constructing, and uniquely owning, operating and maintaining the traction and non-traction electrical infrastructure of London St. Pancras Highspeed; and modernising London Underground under a private finance initiative working on regenerative braking.
The Rationalised Autotransformer System implemented by UK Power Networks Services as part of the Great Western Electrification project is a
prime example of how the organisation is using digital technologies to improve resilience.
The state-of-the-art advanced protection system, a collaboration between UK Power Networks Services, ABB, Siemens and Network Rail Infrastructure Projects, reduces the number of circuit breakers and other equipment whilst maintaining safe operation of the line, delivering cost savings in the procurement, installation, and maintenance of an autotransformer electrification system and better. The innovation was recognised at the National Rail Awards 2018 as Innovation of the Year.
“It was a world-first protection solution for the railway and a unique piece of work,” explained Theo, who led the project. “The system identifies the fault very quickly and reconfigures the network in a way that can get the railway running within seconds.
“It gives us something to build on. We are continuously looking at how we can improve things for Network Rail, particularly on the supplier’s framework for integrated protection and control for the Wales and Western Region. It’s been a good partnership with the organisation’s asset management team with the potential of it developing elsewhere.”
Discontinuous electrification is a hot topic, with onboard batteries on rolling stock a potential solution to the electrification of non-electrified rail routes.
UK Power Networks Services has been worked with
several operators about how this can be done.
“The relevance to our work is around charging infrastructure, looking at the strategic opportunities to charge battery rolling stock and what the electrification challenges are in order to get that power to the rolling stock,” explained Steve.
Theo added: “We work collaboratively with clients on the solutions to see if they can be feasible from an economical and engineering perspective. It is an interesting area of focus and with the costs of electrification, these battery train solutions are probably going to be the way forward particularly for sidings and branch lines.”
The work has also included working with manufacturers to look at the challenges of connecting to the grid, with UK Power Networks Services particularly important in the conversation with its expertise in electrification and in working with distribution and operators.
“We’re owned by one of the largest distribution networks in England. Our teams have broad experience of working on those networks and in getting the best value and solutions to quickly connect to the grid to enable charging infrastructure to be deployed in the first place.”
UK Power Networks Services is one of the largest providers in the UK of network automation and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), a system of software and hardware that allows control over your electricity network.
Explaining recent examples of putting the technology to good use, Steve talked about the renewal of the SCADA system on the London St. Pancras Highspeed electrification system that the organisation owns. “We’ve looked at deploying more traditional software technologies used in networks which evolve around the distribution management systems, looking at how we can better control the networks and get data to enable better insights on decision making.”
Theo added: “It’s all about data, the more you have the better understanding you get of the systems that you run and operate. The renewal of the London St. Pancras Highspeed SCADA system has enabled us to get more accurate data to improve and optimise the system.
“Over the last year we’ve completed the installation for load and power quality monitoring devices across the network which will enable us to get more data to help us understand any issues which might be affecting the network, helping us analyse what has happened, and also enabling preventative maintenance.”
UK Power Networks Services is one of the few companies within the UK to have a SCADA verification facility, putting it in a unique position of being able to assess solutions in a controlled, safe environment, prior to deployment, allowing extensive interoperability and integration testing to take place, minimising any potential risks for its personnel and customers’ operations.
“Suppliers are constantly evolving their technology with this facility allowing us to get our hands on it early to test in our centre and to see how it interacts
with existing systems,” commented Steve. “It means we can iron out issues with manufacturers early and come up with new ideas.
“We’ve put it to great use for live projects and in some cases have been buying components and building automation systems which we then go on to fit on site to operate our client systems.”
Theo said it is having a big impact on new recruits, allowing them to get the hands on experience in a safe environment.
“Engineers can explore with all different types of equipment, getting into the depths of how we integrate those assets with different systems and different plans as well,” he added. “It gives us the opportunity to deploy our systems in a secure environment and when we go on site it is mostly a plug-and-play scenario.”
Steve continued: “It is all about managing risk and interoperability, showing clients how we can mitigate that risk using the facility that we’ve created.”
Another successful project has been its work with London Underground in exploring the benefits of inverter technology in traction power substations to allow regenerative braking energy to be exported back into the distribution network.
Maintenance was a key consideration of its approach to the selection of the technology with Alstom’s HESOP inverter naturally air-cooled, requiring minimal maintenance compared to forced air-cooling systems on other inverters.
“It takes the regenerated DC electricity from the rails and puts it back into their cable high voltage distribution network,” explained Steve. “There were quite a few challenges to overcome, including interfacing with signalling systems, but the project has
been a success and it has led to a reduction to London Underground’s electricity bill.”
Theo added: “We’ve also worked in partnership with Network Rail High Speed and Southeastern to introduce regenerative braking technology on London St. Pancras Highspeed converting the energy used to slow trains into electrical energy that can either be used by other trains on the network or directed back to the National Grid.
“In both cases the smart technology has reduced the amount of power needed to drive trains and, in turn, reduced the overall emissions helping organisations to hit net-zero targets and their own personal sustainability goals.”
Changes to energy use in the rail sector are not limited to traction power. Renewable generation such as solar PV is becoming more common at stations and maintenance depots, and with the uptake of electric vehicles continuing to increase, customers and staff will expect charging infrastructure to be available in station car parks.
Steve said: “The rail industry is on a net zero drive and we have the expertise to support organisations on that journey. It is always going to be a challenge, looking at whether you buy in the energy or deploy it as part of the railway.
“We have lots of experience in renewables, operating solar assets ourselves and wind assets, constantly engaging with the sector about implementing greener energy on the network. Beyond that we are looking at designing projects to use less carbon in the construction phases through different materials and different ways of designing it.”
When it comes to the latter, Theo reflects on the Great Western Electrification project, where polyfibre was used in place of traditional steel reinforcement for the construction of load bearing concrete structures. The fibre was added to the concrete at source, so it was not necessary to construct the steel frames on site, thus avoiding several safety hazards and environmental risks.
The environmental benefits included a 42 tonne reduction of reinforcing steel going to site and reduction of embodied carbon by 18,000kg CO2 equivalent. The initiative was recognised with a Network Rail Sustainable Construction Award, as well as being shortlisted for the Environment and Sustainability categories at the Utility Week Awards 2017 and UK Rail Infrastructure Awards 2018, two categories at the Rail Partnership Awards 2018 as well as the Health and Safety Initiative category in the Network Awards 2020.
“This solution enabled us to save time and money when it came to building the concrete bases, and minimised the time spent on site saving CO2 emissions and ensuring safety for personnel. Safety is our top priority at UK Power Networks Services and we are proud of our 10-year zero incident safety record”, Theo added.
Steve concluded: “We are constantly looking at innovation. We want to be able to innovate, but the thing that is most important is that we do it in a safe, resilient and reliable way. When we do it, we think strategically about our clients and the impact it can have.”
www.ukpowernetworksservices.co.uk/rail/
Chela is leading the way in high-performance chemical cleaning solutions for the rail sector. Sales Director Tony Philippou explains how it is doing so with sustainability at its heart
The ambition for the team at Chela is for the UK rail industry to not be reliant on petroleum-based sources in its detergents, transitioning its clients to more sustainable sources of chemicals, which at the same time don’t impact their performance.
“In the last 18 months there has been a drive from our clients to use more sustainable technology,” said Tony Philippou, who is responsible for all mass transport, winterisation related business for the UK/ Europe at Chela. “Most of the chemicals procured in the UK rail industry start in gas or oil form, but that is changing, and we’re leading the way.”
That is being achieved by the company’s Pure range, formulated using ingredients sourced from plant-based biomass, which is a highly dilutable, effective and versatile hard surface cleaner and degreaser which can be used on trains, offices, flooring and can degrease and clean inspection and engineering pits.
“There is a perception in the cleaning industry when you mention sustainability that it might not deliver the results that you get from petroleum-based detergents, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Tony, from the team of 40 which includes five scientists. “Our Pure range has gone through lab testing to ensure that the cleanability is, at minimum, the same, and that it is safe for the asset and workers.
“What we’ve found is that it has outperformed petroleum-based chemicals. Clients also have the reassurance that the chemicals we deliver go through extensive lab testing where we mimic the type of soiling we get within the field, with rail being very much iron dust and brake dust. We can be 99.9 per cent sure when that chemical goes into trial it is going to perform.”
If you are travelling on a train or bus anywhere in the UK there is a good chance that Chela’s detergents have been used to make them safe and clean. For nearly 40 years the UK manufacturer has led the way with its innovative specialised industrial chemicals and technical solutions.
Its Pure range is already proving popular, with it currently being rolled out for use across all London Underground exteriors – the first time the work has been carried out using 100 per cent plant-based products to maintain the exteriors.
“It is a huge story and is thanks to a tri effort between ourselves, London Underground and the FM provider ABM,” said Tony. “The results so far have been fantastic, and with the likes of London Underground showing its confidence in the Pure range I can see it being a gamechanger for the industry.
“To put the CO2 saving into context, for every 1,000 litres of 100 per cent plant-based chemicals we sell or replace, there is a CO2 saving of 123 kilos of CO2. It might not sound a lot, but for organisations that use thousands of litres of chemicals every year that makes a big difference.”
What differs Chela from many of its competitors is its ability to create new products or adapt existing ones for existing and prospective customers thanks to its dedicated research and development laboratory and scientists.
The products Chela offers are created with the latest chemical technology that not only solve clients’ problems, but also take into account environmental
issues, from the chemicals being used, to the packaging they are being stored in.
Commenting on the latter, Tony said: “Eradicating the purchase of non-virgin packaging is super important for us, we also offer national recycling of all bulk packaging and where possible smaller pack sizes which usually find their way into waste streams for incineration.
“We’ve always offered that service on our larger packs, but we are seeing increasing demand with our smaller packs which is great as we don’t want plastics going into the waste streams.”
A key to Chela’s success is adopting a partnership style approach, with its primary concern in ensuring that its clients are able to use the products effectively and safely, while experiencing the highest levels of on-going technical service and support.
It is also able to manufacture bespoke cleaning chemicals based on specific criteria including performance levels and exacting price points. Chela adopts a partnership approach to all such projects ensuring that the client’s needs are fully understood. Product development work can be undertaken to address a wide variety of projects.
“It is all about working with clients to deliver results,” said Tony. “We don’t send chemicals out without a tailored methodology of how to use them and the best way to use them. I get my hands dirty very regularly to work with cleaners at all levels to ensure we are giving them the best service. Selling chemicals is technical, I am selling a concept and technical service is within our DNA and that is important.”
Chela, part of Fisher Darville Group of companies, was established in the UK in 1988 and serves the UK, Europe and beyond. As well as its sustainability ambitions, the company is passionate to continue developing to ensure it remains a leader in the supply of detergents into UK rail, continuing to build its portfolio.
“My role is to continue working with clients to solve technical issues, increasing the cleanliness and presentation standards and ensuring trains, depots and stations look their best,” he said. “It is job which gives me an enormous sense of pride, particularly when you see first hand the impact our products are having.
www.chela.co.uk/
There is a perception in the cleaning industry when you mention sustainability that it might not deliver the results that you get from petroleum-based detergents, but that couldn’t be further from the truth
Management consultancy Anturas works with clients to put the appropriate programme architecture in place to help deliver programme outcomes and objectives. Managing Director Cath Leech explains more
Anturas was formed in 2017 to raise standards in programme delivery, building a strong reputation in offering support and advice to help clients deliver large-scale programmes, improving the built environment, primarily sustainable transport –active travel, mass rapid transit and heavy rail.
The Anturas team take pride in its agility, believing strongly that one-size-fits all approaches are not suited to major infrastructure programmes.
The management consultancy’s culture is one of continual learning, honesty, respect and celebrating difference. This helps to build strong relationships with clients, their teams and partners.
“Our work has that ability to help change people’s lives, society, where people live and that is something that is very precious to the Anturas team,” explained Managing Director Cath Leech.
“With the pride comes a great sense of responsibility. We target delivering commissions as efficiently as possible. We want, and expect, projects and programmes to deliver value for the society they are being created in. This is key and something that resonates with the Anturas team.
“We make cities healthier, happier places to live and work, and provide sustainable solutions to help drive economic growth,” added Cath, a Chartered Civil Engineer.
“As subject matter experts, we provide targeted advice in terms of programme organisation and governance, technical assurance (putting a whole system approach forward at an early stage) and safety engineering assurance which provides confidence the solution is safe. Using this approach, we believe we are empowering our clients to know where they should focus their effort. We avoid flooding clients with unnecessary resource, but guide the team as a whole to deliver what is expected from the client. By the end of a commission, we aim to provide clients with the skills needed, so they may not require us in the future.”
Every programme, and in turn each project, needs to bring together a shared vision with clear and measurable outcomes and well-defined requirements that can be tracked from inception through to completion. Anturas’ experience of taking major infrastructure programmes and projects through the lifecycle provides it with the expertise to show these core components are developed and managed to deliver success.
It provides a team who understand the overall customer’s outcomes, sponsor requirements, stakeholders issues and delivery partner objectives.
The company brings a systematic approach to developing, integrating and assuring complex
programmes and projects. In short, it is the “glue” that provides an integrated approach, helping customers every step along the way.
“The complexity and evolution that major projects go through means you need more than a standardised project management toolkit,” commented Cath, who is responsible for delivering the organisation’s business strategy and growth.
“Challenges you will come up against are unique to your project, which is why we tailor our support to what your project truly needs to succeed. Our fantastic strategic and technical experts have delivered every aspect of the project lifecycle from working as the client, the contractor and the consultant - we know the risks inherent to infrastructure projects.”
Looking to the future and the plan is to grow not just in the UK but in Canada and Ireland, as well as moving into other sectors such as renewable energy.
“We have a brilliant team at Anturas and one that is continuing to grow in both size and expertise” she said. “In the future the plan is to replicate the UK model in Ireland and Canada. We have fantastic relationships with the Tier 1 supply chain and are growing in reputation as a trusted partner across the industry. We are aiming to achieve a stronger pipeline by contracting directly with programme sponsors and the public sector. To support this, we are targeting securing places on public body frameworks to allow us to diversify our client base. This is a challenge for many Small Medium Enterprises (SME) as frameworks are not usually crafted in a way for SMEs to respond and we usually don’t have the financial standing or team size to bid alone.”
Cath is also Chair of the Railway Industry Associations’ SME Group, a community and platform for the SME supply chain to discuss mutual challenges and share expertise across the rail industry. The group also shines a light on the diverse skills SMEs bring to industry. The supply chain, as a whole, has to actively engage, promote and in turn contract with SMEs to prevent the subject matter expertise SMEs bring being lost from the supply chain.
“I am passionate in raising the profile and importance of SMEs in the rail industry and helping them overcome some of the challenges to build an even stronger SME community,” she said.
www.anturasconsulting.com
DB Cargo UK is undergoing a transformation centred around four key pillars. Jon Harman, Head of Asset Management and Maintenance, and Mike Gray, Chief Transformation and Digitalisation Officer, discuss the journey so far
DB Cargo UK is laying the foundations in not just improving its own business for its own clients, but in ensuring the wider sector is safer and more efficient. This centres on an ambitious transformation plan around loss-making contracts, the optimisation of the locomotive and wagon fleet, property utilisation, and lastly around the company’s IT and technological platform.
“It’s a really exciting time to be involved with DB Cargo UK and the reason I joined the company is because I wanted to be part of this journey,” explained Mike Gray, Chief Transformation and Digitalisation Officer, who will soon be marking his first year at the organisation. “We’ve got to look after freight first and then us, because without the
freight sector we’re irrelevant.
“One of the core thrusts of our new strategic direction is around our third-party maintenance and engineering work, utilising our capability and expertise and selling that to the industry. We’re here not just to haul the trains, but to support the wider freight industry, and to underpin the transformation we’re also rebuilding ourselves under the hood digitally.”
Third-party maintenance currently accounts for around 15 per cent of DB Cargo UK’s total activities, although Jon Harman, Head of Asset Management and Maintenance, is confident that can be doubled, sweating the assets for the benefit of the company, but also the wider sector.
“The jewel in the crown for DB Cargo UK is the
maintenance facilities and expertise of the team so it makes sense to offer that out to the sector,” said Jon. “Our capabilities are the envy of the sector in a lot of ways with our depots set up with load banks, wash plants, paint shops, and we’ve got wheel lathes all under one roof. That with the technical expertise as well.
“I think it is right to work with competitors because it is all about looking at the bigger picture of the wider freight sector, without which we are nothing, so we need to support the sector first and be concerned about the competitor second. We offer good value for money, and we don’t compete on price, but we do compete on quality. Opening up our expertise can save competitors having to invest in similar facilities,
so sweating our assets is a winner for everybody.”
DB Cargo UK has opened up more capability through extensive work in improving its own fleet – something which has paid off with a 240 per cent increase in reliability. The company has also re-engineered more than 200 BYA type wagons to meet steel demands, and is in the process of transforming a further 60 BAA wagons being assembled in Stoke.
Explaining more about the latter, Jon said: “We’ve got an ageing fleet of wagons which are expensive to replace and upgrade and the margins in this sector are slim. Whereas in the past we would have lived with either the old wagons or found the money to buy new, this thinking outside the box has helped us to make the money go a lot further and I think we’ve got a better wagon now than if we’d have gone to the market.
“The wagon was designed in the UK, and we commissioned our colleagues in DB Poland to build the frame and we’ve overhauled our existing swing motion bogies from our retired fleet and put it all together at our Stoke depot for a fraction of the price it would have cost to go to the market. There is also the ability to bi-mode the wagon so it can take slab or coil depending on how it is configured. So far, we’ve completed 19 wagons, with another 41 left to do.”
An important part of DB Cargo UK’s transformation is a new operational system, which will allow the organisation to generate data-driven information and AI that will enable it to become even more efficient and optimised going forward and to have that end-to-end state-of-the-art operational system that is flexible and versatile, adding value to customers.
“Building the digital capability up will allow us to better understand the profitability through every decision and through every change,” said Mike. “It will allow us to be much more cost effective, much more competitively priced and enable us to have much richer conversations with our customers about what things cost, any changes needed, and the impact of those changes, getting that information in real time.
“We’re effectively managing all of our resources to the peak at the minute. This system can really help
us balance some of those things out and offer much more competitive pricing to the market because we can find those white space areas where we’ve got spare capacity, got drivers, locos, wagons that could be doing a job. My role is to attack the complexity, attack the cost and improve the customer proposition we have to the market.”
Another important project is the fitting of the new European Train Control System (ETCS) to the UK’s Class 66 freight locomotives. Last month the organisation signed a contract with Siemens Mobility to fit the new in-cab signalling system to nine of the locomotives at DB Cargo UK’s Toton Traction Maintenance Depot in the East Midlands.
The work, which is scheduled to be completed in March 2026, is the first phase of a national programme, which will eventually see all of the organisation’s Class 66 locomotives fitted with ETCS as part of the roll-out of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) in the UK. The initial roll-out of ERTMS is being delivered by the £1.4 billion East Coast Digital Programme, which will see traditional lineside signals replaced by the new digital in-cab technology.
“We’re setting up the depot for success for the work – moving the wash plant outside to create space inside, putting a new crane in and a new loading bank in, staging and access equipment, ready for the start of the work in July,” commented Jon. “We’ve done a lot of modifications before, but this will be quite intricate work. Overall, 169 Class 66s will be fitted with the system taking us into 2031.”
Mike added: “ETCS is going to make it easier for a driver to drive safely, particularly in periods of poor visibility, and it will be a huge step forward in terms of safety, allowing us to maintain more speed and momentum and within the broader flow of trains on the network. I’d like to see us start crystalising what ETCS is going to do for freight, with the project working with the industry to articulate the benefits.
“Overall, it is an exciting time to be part of DB Cargo UK, with the transformation plan not just good for the business but beneficial for the wider rail freight sector.”
www.uk.dbcargo.com/
We’ve got to look after freight first and then us, because without the freight sector we’re irrelevant
Rachael Everard of RSSB explains the importance attached to sustainable development in the railway of 2025 and beyond
When I moved into the rail industry just a few months ago, I knew I was entering a sector with extraordinary potential. What I have discovered since is something even more profound: an industry that isn’t just capable of change – it’s hungry for it. Rail has a unique ability to be a key driver of economic development, innovation, social mobility and decarbonisation, and at RSSB, we’ve been working to ensure that happens in a sustainable way.
I joined the team as Director of Sustainable Development in February, drawn to a sector that has so much to contribute to society, and to a team that has delivered so much in the past few years. The Sustainable Rail Blueprint is our framework for realising a decarbonised, resilient, inclusive and equitable railway. It’s a vision that the whole industry has got behind. and it was recognised at the prestigious ‘edie awards’ last month, taking home the prize for ESG strategy of the year.
It’s clear that sustainability isn’t a fringe concern anymore – it’s becoming part of how the industry thinks, plans, and delivers. That’s why, at the heart
Everard, Director of Sustainable Development, RSSB
of everything we do, we’re proud to convene and manage 14 cross-industry working groups, each focused on advancing the Blueprint in practice. They bring together operators, suppliers, infrastructure experts, community representatives, and policy makers not just to exchange ideas, but to shape them into action.
But there’s still a long way to go, and our job at RSSB is to help keep the momentum steady and focused.
The past few years has been about setting strong foundations and laying the tracks for success. We’ve worked across the industry to bring greater clarity, consistency, and collaboration to sustainability – now we must work together from ambition to implementation and evidence-based impact.
At RSSB, we’ve supported efforts to make the railway more resilient to climate risks, recognising that extreme weather is no longer a future threat, but a present-day reality. Our guidance is helping the industry embed adaptation into infrastructure,
operations, and long-term planning, and we are working with the Climate Change Adaptation Working Group to agree on a consistent set of climate change scenarios for rail, giving the industry a standardised, practical basis for risk-assessments and long-term planning.
We’ve also helped strengthen the industry’s understanding of local environmental and health impacts through the continued operation of the Air Quality Monitoring Network, a nationwide system providing high-quality, location-specific data to inform air quality improvements at stations. This work is shaping evidence-based guidance and interventions that can improve health outcomes for passengers, staff, and local communities.
Social sustainability has also come into sharper focus. Through our Social Sustainability Working Group, we’ve helped drive collaborative programmes that are already delivering measurable value, unlocking opportunities for education, social mobility, and community engagement that go far beyond the tracks. Our Rail Social Value Tool is helping organisations understand and measure the true impact of their social contributions against more than 1,300 metrics that include the value of employment as well as apprenticeship programmes or employee wellbeing, alongside specific rail metrics that quantify the impact of increased accessibility or use of railway property by charities and the third sector.
Quietly, but with growing momentum, we’ve been building something powerful behind the scenes: the Sustainable Insights platform. This will bring the industry new capability to monitor and report sustainability performance by tracking progress against the ambitions set out within the Blueprint.
These achievements aren’t endpoint – they’re enablers. They’re about creating the conditions for the industry to move forward with confidence, consistency, and purpose.
What’s coming: 2025 and beyond
Looking ahead, RSSB’s sustainability team is focused on four interconnected missions that will shape how we work with industry in the coming years:
Embedding sustainability into the everyday Sustainability is only useful when it becomes business as usual: not confined to a department, but present in every boardroom conversation, procurement decision and
infrastructure plan. That’s why one of our top priorities this year is supporting the sector to embed it into processes, plans, and culture.
We’ve rolled out the Sustainability Maturity Tool, our self-assessment tool which enables rail organisations to score their performance across sustainable rail topics, and we’re seeing companies use the Blueprint to structure new and refreshed sustainability strategies.
Driving down emissions
Infrastructure accounts for around half the total carbon footprint of the rail industry. To tackle this, we need to be thinking about emissions all the way through the design process. This year, we’ll develop the Carbon Management Tool to support infrastructure planners and designers in making low-carbon choices from the outset.
The Rail Carbon Accounting Framework (RCAF) will be published in 2025. It will bring a clear and consistent approach to the calculation of organisational carbon footprints. This will improve understanding of emissions, reduce consultancy spend, and enable organisations to plot realistic paths to net zero.
Supporting the natural environment – not just preserving, but regenerating
As we build and modernise, we must tread more lightly and even give back. This year, we’ll continue to lead the industry’s programme on climate adaptation and weather resilience, supporting members in delivering robustness into rail assets and operations.
But this work is not just about defence. It’s also about reconnection with nature. We are aligning our support with the Blueprint’s goals such as “A Railway for Nature” and “Protect and Conserve Water”. In this way, we’re helping members deliver biodiversity net gain, manage land more sustainably, and explore nature-based solutions like green corridors and sustainable drainage. Rail must be a good neighbour to the planet, not just a lower-carbon option.
Delivering social impact – with and for communities
Sustainability is as much about people as it is about the environment. In 2025/26, we will deepen our work on social sustainability, helping the
Sustainability is as much about people as it is about the environment
industry generate lasting value for communities – particularly those who have historically been left behind. Our goal is that passengers don’t just see rail as a transport option, but as a pathway to opportunity, health, and connection.
The Rail Social Value Tool will be expanded with new metrics and will collate insights across the industry, helping us show where social value is being delivered most effectively and put a pound value behind achievements that are harder to quantify.
An invitation to leadership
What makes rail unique is not just its potential for decarbonisation. It’s the fact that rail has always been about connection. And now, at a time when climate change, inequality, and regional imbalance threaten our collective future, rail can rise to meet that challenge, if we work together.
But change won’t happen by accident. It will take leadership – not just from RSSB, but from every organisation, every leader, every team in the rail industry. The industry’s people are passionate, deeply skilled, and committed to public good. The task now is to give them the tools, the vision, and the shared direction to create a future that’s not just efficient, but clean and lasting.
In an industry like rail, change doesn’t happen through bold slogans or grand gestures. Change happens through shared purpose, well-designed tools, and quiet persistence. That’s the kind of work RSSB’s sustainability team has focused on over the past year, and it’s the kind of work we’ll continue to drive forward.
If you’re working on any part of the sustainability journey – or you want some help getting started –we’re here to support you.
Steel, Managing Director of
As we look towards the future of the rail industry, it is clear that change is underway. The drive towards electrification, cost efficiency, and sustainability is shaping the landscape, and QTS Group is at the forefront of this transformation. As we continue to expand our operations across the UK, our focus remains on maintaining the values that have made us successful while embracing the trends that will define the future of rail infrastructure.
Having joined QTS as Design Manager in 2012, I progressed to Operations Director in 2016, where I oversaw the civils and geotechnical departments. These roles provided me with valuable insight into our operations and the dedicated people who drive our success. In March of last year, I had the honour of being appointed as Managing Director of QTS. Leading the company through this period of significant transformation is a responsibility I take great pride in. The last year has seen some real highlights, including key CP7 framework wins in the Scotland, North West and Central and Eastern and Anglia regions and the expansion of our office locations across England.
At QTS, we are deeply committed to both the growth of the rail industry and the communities we serve. My focus is to ensure that we remain aligned with industry trends while never losing sight of the core values that define us: people, innovation, and operational excellence.
The rail industry is undergoing significant changes, driven by evolving priorities and challenges. One of the most noticeable shifts is in how the industry approaches spending. Historically, large, enhancement-driven projects were a key focus. Today, however, there is an increasing emphasis on maintaining and improving the existing network, which helps to keep the risk of delays low, especially in the form of keeping lineside vegetation at bay to reduce leaf fall through the autumn and winter months.
This means more investment in day-to-day operations and smaller-scale, frequent maintenance projects. At QTS, we have responded to this shift by ensuring we are responsive and ready to support Network Rail with the speed and efficiency needed to keep services running smoothly.
The impact of climate change has also made
agility a crucial factor in how we work, ensuring the ongoing maintenance of the railway. Increased disruptions due to changes in weather patterns are now part of the landscape, and our ability to quickly mobilise and restore services has never been more important. With its highly skilled and experienced team, QTS is uniquely positioned to help get the rail network back up and running as quickly as possible when unexpected challenges arise.
One of the biggest trends shaping the next few years in rail infrastructure is the push for more electrification. The need to reduce our carbon footprint and increase the sustainability of rail networks is more pressing than ever. With Rail Electrified Limited (REL) now a key part of the group capability, we are well positioned to contribute to this electrification agenda. Our experience in asset management and maintenance, along with our strong presence on electrification projects, makes
us a trusted partner in the journey towards a more sustainable rail network.
At QTS, we are experiencing significant growth. Our expanding footprint through England and Wales marks a key milestone for the company as we continue to take on new projects and maintenance contracts. Yet, as we grow, one of the most important goals is to maintain the strong family-oriented culture that has been integral to our success.
For us, being a family company goes beyond ownership, it’s about creating a work environment where employees feel valued. Many of our staff have been with QTS for years, and it’s not uncommon for multiple generations of the same family to work here. This multi-generational workforce is a testament to the trust and loyalty we have built over the years. Personally, this resonates deeply, as one of my sons
still works for me, and another worked here for several years.
As we scale our operations, we are focused on retaining this family atmosphere. We understand that people are our greatest asset, and by nurturing a workplace culture that values long-term relationships, loyalty, and mutual respect, we can continue to provide an exceptional service to our customers while keeping our employees motivated and engaged. For us, growth is not just about increasing the size of the business; it’s about growing with the people who are the heart of our success.
This approach ensures that, despite our expansion with five new office openings in 2024, we do not lose sight of the personal connections and close-knit relationships that make QTS unique. Our people-first philosophy is embedded in everything we do, and we remain dedicated to offering opportunities for personal and professional development at every level of the company.
Innovation is one of the key pillars of QTS’s ongoing success. As the rail industry evolves, so too must the tools and technology we use. We are committed to staying ahead of the curve by embracing automation and developing cutting-edge plant and equipment. These innovations are not just about improving efficiency - they’re about keeping our workers safe and enhancing the overall quality of the services we deliver.
One of the most critical areas of innovation at QTS is automation. Rail infrastructure work has traditionally required a high degree of human interaction with plant machinery, which introduces safety risks. The safety of our employees is always a top priority, and reducing human-plant interactions is a key safety focus. By automating certain tasks and developing plant equipment that can be operated with minimal human involvement, we can significantly reduce the risk of accidents while improving the speed and efficiency of our operations.
For example, we have been developing smarter plant and machinery that can operate autonomously or with limited human supervision, reducing the need for workers to be in close proximity to heavy equipment. This not only improves safety but also helps to streamline operations by minimising delays and ensuring that work is completed faster and more efficiently.
In addition to automation, we continue to invest in the development of new plant equipment. Our commitment to innovation includes exploring new machinery and technology that can further increase the efficiency of our work, reduce costs, and improve the sustainability of our operations. Whether it’s enhancing the capabilities of existing equipment or developing entirely new solutions, we are dedicated to ensuring that our plant and machinery are always on the cutting edge.
Furthermore, our focus on plant technology extends to improving the adaptability and versatility of our equipment. As we continue to expand our footprint across different regions, we ensure that
our plant can meet the specific demands of each project, from everyday maintenance to large-scale infrastructure works. By sharing resources and best practices across regions, we maintain high standards of quality and operational efficiency throughout the country.
As a family-run business, QTS has always placed great importance on maintaining a personal, peoplefirst approach. Our values have been the cornerstone of our success, and this will remain a priority as we expand. We are currently expanding our presence across England, bringing our expertise and service excellence to more parts of the UK. This expansion also opens up new opportunities for us to diversify into structural work, such as maintaining and replacing bridges, which we believe will be a key growth area moving forward.
One of the exciting opportunities on the horizon is our focus on bringing new, young talent into the industry. We have always been dedicated to staff development, and we continue to invest in training initiatives like our Skills Academy. By growing our team from within and developing future leaders through apprenticeships and leadership training, we are ensuring that QTS has the right people in place to continue driving innovation and success in the years to come.
As we look to the future, I am confident that QTS is well-positioned to continue its journey of growth and innovation in the rail industry. By expanding our presence across the UK, embracing electrification and automation, and investing in our people, we are laying the groundwork for long-term success.
Building on from our Founder and Group Chairman, Alan McLeish’s legacy, my focus is on steering QTS through this next phase of transformation, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of industry advancements while staying true to our core values.
People, innovation, and safety will remain at the heart of everything we do, not only keeping pace with industry trends but continuing to lead the way in making rail infrastructure safer, more sustainable, and more efficient for all
People, innovation, and safety will remain at the heart of everything we do, not only keeping pace with industry trends but continuing to lead the way in making rail infrastructure safer, more sustainable, and more efficient for all.
With its talented team and a steadfast commitment to its values, QTS is ready to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
www.qtsgroup.com
Mike Watkins, Business Unit Director at Wincanton, explains more about using the organisation’s supply chain expertise in rail infrastructure projects
Wincanton has a 100-year track record of managing complex supply chains and getting what you need - be it equipment or materials - to the right place, at the right time, safely and in the right condition, with each stage fully visible and traceable digitally.
That expertise is something the organisation’s Business Unit Director, Mike Watkins, believes could be a game changer when it comes to railway infrastructure projects, unlocking the issues of customers which have long, fragmented and complex supply chains.
“We can help provide scalable solutions with high levels of accuracy, efficiency and inventory control on a just-in-time basis,” he said. “Logistics might not be the core skill of those working in rail infrastructure; it is for us and bringing the expertise we can make that side of a project more efficient and easier.”
Wincanton is very familiar with the rail industry, having worked with the likes of Alstom on the management of its warehouse operations, kitting and transport management. It also has a fantastic CV when it comes to infrastructure, threading efficiency, safety and innovation into the fabric of every project, and drawing best practice for the numerous sectors it operates in.
“We already work with the likes of EDF Hinkley Point C, BAE Systems and Thales, on warehousing, inventory management, kitting and transport management, with a lot of our capabilities applicable and transferable to the rail industry,” explained Mike. “For some of these contracts we manage the inbound flow of goods and components from suppliers as well.”
Mike is also confident that what Wincanton offers
is different to what is already out there, driven by its supply chain focused innovation which enables customers to navigate the challenges of tomorrow, develop new propositions, transform the consumer experience and grow their market share.
The Wincanton Supply Chain Integrator (WSCI) platform makes complex supply chains visible and transparent, through tracking and reporting, enabling projects to be optimised, compliant and completed on-time and to budget. Real-time visibility of materials and the coordination of suppliers able to track and manage CO2 emissions, significantly reduces downtime, waste and removes inefficiency to enhance engineering productivity.
Another example given by Mike is its EyeQ digital transport service to optimise operations, reducing cost and driving net zero. Drawing on the strength of the organisation’s technology, people and processes, it is estimated it can drive down costs by up to 12 per cent and reduce CO2 emissions by up to 10 per cent.
“We have got access to a huge fleet of vehicles, a mixture of our own and some third-party haulier vehicles, which we can integrate in a way which creates cost efficiency and carbon benefits. Tying that into the WCSI platform you have got full visibility of where those goods are at any time.”
Last year the organisation acquired Invar (now rebranded to Inteq), a UK-based specialist in warehouse execution software, automation and controls, accelerating its robotics and automation.
“We recognise the industry is changing and there are upward pressures on labour costs and availability, and skill shortages,” said Mike. “While we don’t see robotics and automation replacing people, we do see
them as enhancing what we can do, with our spread of robotics and automation going up to large scale automation deployment.
“An area I’m particularly excited about is using the technology to enhance people’s manual handling techniques and using the right ergonomic handling techniques, and helping people be safe in terms of how they are lifting, using robotics or people enhancing technology to help.”
W 2 underpins the organisation’s way of delivering supply chain innovation, shaping how the organisation thinks and acts on innovation and how it creates new ideas and harnesses these to deliver real outcomes.
“Innovation can’t be part of somebody’s job, if you want to do it properly you’ve got to focus on it,” said Mike, who highlighted the organisation’s dedicated innovation centre in Corby. “We’ve established a great team who focus on all areas of innovation within the business.
“It is also important to work with partners. Every year we run the W2 Labs programme where we look at industry and business problems we want to solve, and start-ups pitch their potential innovative solutions. In the past we’ve had success with the likes of carbon reduction and AI, although we’ve only just scratched the surface with what AI can do in terms of efficiency, particularly around our IT road map
“I’m excited for the future and the opportunity rail infrastructure presents and what we can offer. There is a capability we can bring into this space that doesn’t exist today which will help customers deliver better.” www.wincanton.co.uk
Rhys
Coombs, Director and Co-Founder of CC Informatics, discusses undertaking diffi cult surveys using the latest in unmanned technology
etermining the integrity of large assets can be difficult, expensive and dangerous – often requiring specialist operatives to access facades via roped access, scaffolding, or by entering confined spaces. In addition, assets can only be assessed precisely where operatives have seen, and signs of deterioration can be missed.
Looking to simplify that process is CC Informatics, a company established in 2020 by John Cramman, Mark Cramman and Rhys Coombs, set up to find the best way to undertake difficult surveys using the latest in unmanned technology, and to post process results using cutting edge machine learning techniques.
“Our aim is to prevent manned access to dangerous places, and to undertake surveys effectively but affordably by automating much of the process,” explained Rhys. “We can put cameras in places people don’t want to go, even somewhere really unhospitable to cameras.
“We’re here to enable people to use platforms like drones, and actually get useful data out of them, taking the mountains of data that you don’t want to process and turning it into something useful, which enables holistic photographic surveys.”
The solution centres around its AssetScan, a new, patent-pending technology, which uses photographic data from remote vehicles and drones, combines this with the power of artificial intelligence and machine vision and then maps signs of structural deterioration or degradation into digital twins.
Originally developed for surveying masonry in the water industry, it has been adapted for use on concrete, cladding and steel structures. Visual inspection data is used to build a photogrammetric 3D model, which is then overlaid with AI-processed survey images. Further processing then enables any detected defects or deterioration to be measured, enabling engineers to quickly locate and track deterioration in large assets.
Rhys, a chartered engineer with a background in data processing, GIS, dams, hydropower and the water sector, added: “We created AssetScan to be exactly what the engineer wants to make their life easier, starting with what the client wants and then working backwards from there.
“Manually identifying continuous fields of information in imagery is a time-consuming, and therefore expensive, task to do manually. For especially large structures, doing so might require several members of staff to undertake such an identification task, leading to consistency issues, and also bias via subjective judgement throughout
the identification process.
“AssetScan instead adopts an alternative approach with manually produced training data being used to teach Machine Learning algorithms to look for features and defects. This improves consistency and significantly reduces the amount of time taken to undertake identification and classification.”
Model outputs can be displayed in formats which can either be imported to CAD packages and BIM, or simply opened as a PDF drawing on regular office laptops. The photogrammetry models produced can be georeferenced using survey markers and be used to produce both meshes and point clouds. The machine learning results can similarly be exported in mesh format, highlighting the features of interest or the condition of those features.
“The sooner you find defects, the easier and cheaper they will be to repair,” added Rhys. “We
can give the 3D model, but we can also create 2D engineering drawings. The first survey, we do a lot of data collection and processing to create the 3D model build. Clients can tell us what they want to see on a drawing and also what defects they are looking for. The codes we use on drawings can follow bespoke markup specifications, for example Network Rail’s tunnel guidance. We provide the AssetScan results alongside photographic imagery side-by-side. In our viewer we have a slider to compare between two surveys to allow manual and automated change detection. Overall, the old way of walking around with a notepad and camera, often in the dark, is not conducive to finding defects. Drones are fantastic but for a plethora of reasons they are not really being implemented. There is a huge missed opportunity, but something needs to change to enable their use. We believe AssetScan is that something.”
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The First of a Kind (FOAK) competition will support projects that can offer level boarding, greener transport, passenger safety and AI solutions
The Department for Transport (DfT) has made £5m funding available to winning projects as part of the FOAK competition.
Opening this month, in partnership with Innovate UK, the FOAK competition offers grant funding for innovative projects to be tested on the railway, to give them a better chance at being bought by train operators, freight companies, and Network Rail.
This year’s competition will be funding projects that focus on:
Passenger experience, particularly improving safety through reporting tools that could help reduce violence against women and girls and anti-social behaviour.
Accessibility, including level boarding.
AI and data collection, for example prevention and recovery of rail bridge crash incidents.
Greener railways, using AI to drive sustainability and reduce waste.
Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy said: “This competition addresses the biggest challenges facing the rail industry, taking cutting-edge technology and
bringing it onto the railways by turning ideas into reality.
“This funding builds a platform for boosting innovation on the railway, giving new technologies a chance to succeed, supporting economic growth as part of the Plan for Change.
“We are creating a railway that works better for the people who use it and making lasting progress for passengers and freight by improving accessibility, safety, and reliability to prevent disruption before it happens.”
This £5 million of Government funding aims to help address one of the key challenges organisations with new innovative ideas face, which is securing funding and being able to demonstrate that their projects work. The FOAK competition, over the eight years it has been running, has provided £58 million of funding to 179 successful projects.
One successful project, that’s already been widely taken up on the railways, is Trains with Brains, an AI sensor onboard trains that monitors where maintenance on the tracks is needed and reports on infrastructure defects that need to be fixed, making the network safer, more efficient and more reliable. Another project, One Big Circle, which is using AI to allow users to monitor things like track conditions and electrical faults online, won the
This competition addresses the biggest challenges facing the rail industry, taking cutting-edge technology and bringing it onto the railways by turning ideas into reality
King’s Award for Innovation.
The Secretary of State has also made strategic innovation one of the five areas of focus for Shadow Great British Railways, bringing together leaders of the DfT, Department for Transport Operator and Network Rail. Work has already started with GBRX, an innovation body sitting under Network Rail challenging and changing the historically slow adoption of new innovations.
GBRX is already convening industry and academia to collaborate more effectively and embrace new technology.
Mike Biddle, Executive Director for Net Zero at Innovate UK, said: “The innovations sought through this competition will help create a more accessible, safer, and efficient railway system throughout the UK.
“The competition highlights the importance of collaboration with industry partners to deliver high-maturity demonstration to ensure seamless integration into the existing railway infrastructure.
“Delivered by Innovate UK on behalf of the DfT, the competition aims to identify and support outstanding, innovative solutions. In previous rounds, companies from across the UK have demonstrated the creativity and impact of their ideas through live demonstrations.”
The competition is open until May 28.
People often ask Professor Paul Plummer if innovation should be driven top down or bottom up. The answer he gives is both.
“Unless you are clear what matters to the industry you can have a load of clever people doing things that are a waste of time, and likewise, those clever people who have got brilliant ideas need to be able to say ‘did you know this might be possible’”, said the Professor in Rail Strategy and Director of University of Birmingham Centre for Rail Research & Education (BCRRE). He added that the Rail Technical Strategy (RTS) helps to bridge this gap but that leadership and collaboration are also essential.
An economist by training, Professor Plummer brings a wealth of board level experience including 13 years at Network Rail where he was responsible for network planning, development projects, system operation, regulation and strategy, and then five years as Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group before it split into Rail Partners and RDG.
“We need to make sure the wonderful research that goes on in universities takes account of the people side, both in terms of what it means for customers, but also how it will impact on people working in the industry,” he explained.
“Unless we take this human perspective, innovations can get stuck. Understanding how organisations work is also part of this perspective. And it therefore ties back to the reform agenda including setting up Great British Railways (GBR) to own the industry research and innovation agenda, to empower people to develop it, and to work with partners to realise the potential.”
He added: “If the Government empowers an armslength body to be the directing mind and appoints a Chief Executive and Chair to develop and drive GBR, then they can empower people further down to really
We’ve got deep expertise in parts of the railway system, plus people that look across the whole system, and that makes the place particularly exciting
make a difference quite quickly for customers and taxpayers.
“It does require that level of empowerment, and not necessarily waiting for legislation to have everything perfectly developed, because what we need is the people that are going to have to solve today’s problems shaping the organisation so there are no excuses.”
Professor Plummer said BCRRE has an almost unique global capability bringing together rail research and education, building on its fantastic reputation, 50 years as a research centre, and running rail education courses for 30 years. As an example, he mentions BRaVE (Birmingham Rail Virtual Environment) which is a railway simulator used in research to push the boundaries of rail simulation, to improve real-world railway operations and to teach railway principles.
“That combination of research, education plus its longevity and depth is incredibly powerful,” he said. “We’ve got deep expertise in parts of the railway
system, plus people that look across the whole system, and that makes the place particularly exciting.
“Increasingly we’re working with other parts of the university and other universities in a multi-disciplinary way to address some of those problems bringing together economists, social scientists and engineers. And BCRRE’s passion for innovation is illustrated by the support it has given over many years to SMEs.”
Alongside his role at BCRRE, Professor Plummer is Academic Lead for the UK Rail Research & Innovation Network (UKRRIN), which is designed to create powerful collaboration between academia and industry, provide a step-change in innovation and accelerate new technologies and products from research into market applications.
Having been set up to enable investment in facilities and help universities build a critical mass of researchers, Professor Plummer said now is the time to look at what UKRRIN should be doing in the future.
“There is an opportunity for UKRRIN to play a stronger coordinating role and be inclusive of the many universities that work in rail. This would offer the industry an easy and effective route for getting the best appropriate academic capability to address their particular challenges,” he added.
“UKRRIN can help with the challenge of making the case for more funding which is particularly difficult, but even more important, in challenging times. To make this case we first need to get the best value from the funding that is available and then measure its impact. UKKRIN can also do more to advocate the capabilities of British universities globally where we have a strong reputation built on our history.
“I am optimistic that strong partnership can enable university rail-research and innovation capability to thrive and be used for the benefit of the railway and its supply chain.”
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Helping to maintain service uptime across a variety of critical rail applications.
ABB’s Installation Products Division has a long legacy of providing quality products and innovative solutions. From safeguarding critical infrastructure on Earth to cable ties that help put machines in space, we continue to deliver solutions that provide a smarter, safer and more reliable flow of electricity from source to socket.
Luke Simpson, Programme Manager with Telent Technology Services, explains how innovation both in design and delivery is transforming rail telecoms in the Wales & Western region and elsewhere
Innovation is not just about new technology, its development and introduction. Innovation can also be about new methods of working, new approaches to overcoming existing challenges and new ways of delivering projects.
Telent Technology Services is a specialist in the design, build, support and management of the UK’s critical digital infrastructure. It is largely hidden from sight – communications ‘just happen’ as far as the public is concerned, with the equipment that delivers the service not generally seen, but it has been estimated that a typical person interacts with a piece of Telent technology 15 times a day.
A good example on how Telent can innovate in project delivery is our Control Period 7 (CP7), renewals telecoms framework contract with Network Rail Wales & Western. As part of Network Rail’s latest five-year planning and funding cycle, we have been appointed to deliver a telecoms renewal programme
The whole reason for any upgrade of the railway is to make it more efficient
throughout the Wales and Western Region, which spans London to Penzance, Bristol, the Cotswolds and the whole of Wales.
Under this first telecoms-only framework to be awarded in CP7, we will deliver upgrades to enhance operational efficiency, reliability and improve passenger experiences. We shall be upgrading critical Operational Telecoms systems and renewing Station Information and Security Systems (SISS) such as customer information, VSS (Voice System Support) and public address at Network Rail managed stations, including Bristol Temple Meads.
Delivery of this programme has already started. We are working closely with Network Rail to plan the renewal programme and design for FTN (Fixed Telecoms Network) power renewals for over 480 sites across the Region.
While, on the face of it, swapping old equipment for new equipment is hardly innovative, the way in which we do it certainly is. We are mobilising
alongside Network Rail. We are supporting key decision making and, in the key mobilisation stage of the first four months, we will be helping them define the pipeline of work and its sequencing. We feel we are best placed to do this alongside Network Rail as we have the expertise and the understanding of what is required on site, within the design and for the end solution.
An intelligent client model is used throughout the PACE (Project Acceleration in a Controlled Environment) lifecycle of the project, from Project Initiation to Project Close, with Telent undertaking key activities such as Full Requirements Capture and Management, and Risk Management. We work with key stakeholders to develop efficiencies across each stage of the project for seamless delivery.
This approach builds on the success of previous projects that Telent has delivered for Wales & Western, such as SPT (signal-post telephone) concentrators.
One recent innovation in design is our Design Carbon Appraisal Tool (DCAT). We use this to estimate the whole-life supply chain emissions for the project, helping us to understand the true carbon impact of the bill of quantities – material and services. This creates a baseline and allows us to make comparisons.
The results are then heatmapped to prioritise carbon reduction initiatives based on their significance. This process not only helps identify cost savings but also encourages further innovation.
All innovations that involve changing or modifying site working practices need to be carried out with safety firmly in mind. This is the number one priority as safety on site is paramount. We have to think of the
men and women who are working on our projects. We have to make sure that our designs are fit for purpose and that our outcomes are realistic and realisable.
We also need to use local labour where at all possible, as well as local subcontractors and the local supply chain. Whether we are working in the north of Scotland, as we have done on the RETB (Radio Electronic Token Block) signalling system on the Far North line, or in the south of England (we provide planned and reactive maintenance services for more than 4,000 security and information assets across Govia Thameslink Railway’s entire southern estate), we need to make sure that we benefit the communities and supply chain where we are working.
As this is a CP7 contract, we need to use the latest assets – hardware and software – and ensure that they are future-proofed so that they will have the longest possible service life.
Working closely with customers and stakeholders – operators, maintainers and users – is crucial in creating efficiency. We need to understand their requirements and consider how we can best meet these, to listen to them around innovation and hear their ideas, and to take account of them in the final solution. This will make sure that the mobilisation phase will go smoothly, as they get to use the new technology and innovative ideas that we are introducing for them, and that the whole project will deliver a satisfactory outcome for them for the present and the future.
And finally, we must remember that the whole reason for any upgrade of the railway is to make it more efficient, more punctual and to reduce delay minutes for the customers – passengers and freight. Our work is for the customers using those trains, the train drivers, everyone else that makes the railway what it is. This is why we need to make sure that every project is delivered to the best of our ability and for the benefit of all.
All innovations that involve changing or modifying site working practices need to be carried out with safety firmly in mind
For nearly 50 years, UK manufacturer Marlec has been providing cuttingedge renewable energy solutions, offering bespoke answers to power equipment, even in the most remote of locations.
“We can be the power behind enabling, the problem solvers,” explained Stuart James, the company’s Sales Director. “I might not be an expert on ANPR cameras, or have an in depth knowledge of track lubrification systems, but I am an expert in providing power to such equipment.
“All we need to know is how much power do the products take, where are they going to be located and what is the frequency in which they will be used. With that information we can design a power system that will give complete autonomy from the grid all year around.”
Marlec is believed to be the longest-standing micro wind turbine manufacturer in the world, beginning in 1978 with the design installation of its first Rutland Windcharger. Recognising the growing potential of renewable energy, it diversified its offerings by incorporating solar panels into its product lines just a few years later.
Continuing its journey in being one step ahead of competition, its products are now widely in use across the rail industry, providing a range of kits for pedestrian level crossing applications, track lubrication systems, CCTV, sensors and IOT systems across the network.
“Marlec was making and designing renewable energy products before the term renewable energy,” explained Stuart, who has been at the company more than 16 years. “We manufacture wind turbines and have real world experience of how the products work in different applications and difference environments.
“There is a lot of science, weather and historical learning behind our system designs. We can give someone a product that are bespoke for them, a plug and play, working hand in glove with the contractor or the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to make sure it is deployed successfully and will do the job it needs to do.”
Marlec is seeing an increasing amount of work in the railways, working with a lot of OEM suppliers and companies involved in everything from track monitoring to level crossings. In the past organisations might have plugged equipment into the mains, but there is a growing need for an off grid solution, particularly in the more remote areas.
“This isn’t renewable energy for renewable energy sake, but in a lot of cases the only way they can power what they want to do is using an off-grid solution,” added Stuart. “The fact we make and sell the products enables us to partner with companies to supply them the right equipment for their needs.
To really get the most out of our expertise the key is to get us onboard early as we can work with organisations so that they get the right renewable energy solution to run their equipment off grid
“There is a push to consider renewables to reduce overall carbon emissions, target carbon offsets, and our equipment does all of that by default, but there are also cost and convenience benefits to what we offer.
“Running a mains cable to run a piece of equipment a quarter of a mile alongside a track might cost tens of thousands of pounds, along with the inconvenience of shutting the line or slowing trains down. One of our professionally designed off-grid systems, either solar, or solar and wind, will cost less to deploy and there’s no on-going utility expenses. It is easy to install, with little maintenance.”
And it is the maintenance side of things that Stuart is particularly proud of, explaining how on a trip to Whitby in North Yorkshire he stopped off at a level crossing, which is being powered thanks to Marlec’s products.
“Five years after being installed and it continues to work never having needed a day of maintenance,” he said. “L.B. Foster and Whitmore also use our products on track lubrication systems and they have little to no downtime.
“We don’t get reports of systems going down because we’ve designed them with the customer and application in mind so they will be reliable. The product backup is also in the UK, our products are made here and if down the line there are any issues we’ve got all of the information from the day it was produced and can still services wind turbines originally manufactured in the late 1980s with the spare parts we stock.
“To really get the most out of our expertise the key is to get us onboard early as we can work with organisations so that they get the right renewable energy solution to run their equipment off grid, using the science, calibration and detailed work we can offer as a service to make sure it is successful.”
www.marlec.co.uk
HEAS. for automatic wheel wear compensation and thus reduced maintenance effort
The Railway Industry Association (RIA) has published a report examining how rail suppliers are improving accessibility across the rail network
Public transport is a key enabler for education, employment, and healthcare access but use of the rail network remains a major challenge for some passengers with additional needs. At best, it can cause uncomfortable or inconvenient journeys, but at worst, if systems fail, passengers can be left in degrading and dehumanising situations.
“A rail network accessible to all is not just a legal and moral imperative, but there are significant positive social, economic and environment impacts too,” explained Sam Bemment, Technical and Innovation Advisor at RIA. “This includes enhanced access to a wider range of education, employment,
and leisure activities, and reduced dependence on carbon-intensive private transport and reduced subsidy and benefits spend.”
RIA, which champions a dynamic UK rail supply sector, has published a new report titled The Journey to Equality: Creating a Railway for All, which showcases how the supply chain is working to improve accessibility across the rail network.
The paper has five key asks:
People directly impacted by decisions should have a direct say in those decisions.
Reform and fast-track the programme delivering station accessibility improvements.
Mandate digital accessibility and data transparency.
Create a railway culture built on respect and helpfulness, where the focus is on ensuring everybody’s journey is important.
Mandate inclusive and accessible onboard facilities.
“There is strong consensus on what is an ideal end state: a railway that is accessible to, and usable, by all in society, with assistance only when necessary,” added Sam. “This consensus has underpinned funding and programmes of work which have spanned decades, governments, ownership
structures and operating models.
“The ideal railway has features such as step-free access, level boarding, inclusive onboard provisions, well-trained and empowered staff, and timely and accurate information accessible to every passenger before, throughout and after the journey.
“In some areas, Britain leads Europe – for example, over 99 per cent of main line platforms now have compliant tactiles. Yet in other areas it lags, and progress toward improvements remains slowsometimes glacial.
“It also lags in financial support, with the £54 disabled-persons railcard only providing 1/3 off, in contrast to free or flat-fare travel on overseas networks which often also offer mobility guarantees.”
The latest study by RIA follows three impactful thought leadership reports on the topics of innovation, data and digital technologies, and rail retail, which launched at its award-winning innovation conference over the last three years. Each report aims to build upon the last, with Sam admitting that authoring the latest report on accessibility has been the hardest to date.
“An innovation report can explore how the future could be brighter with new technology, and a retail report can examine the positive impact upon the balance sheet from ridership growth, but hearing the experiences of those that our industry has collectively failed, ignored, and at times dehumanised, is altogether more humbling,” he said.
“A single publication cannot adequately address the anguish and difficulties of all those who have negative experiences of rail accessibility. However, I do hope that this work helps to promote and accelerate initiatives which can offer real-world, tangible, near-term improvements.”
The report found that accessibility provision is inconsistent, with 63 per cent of the 1.5 billion annual journeys that take place on the network being stepfree. However, by some industry measures, step-free access is unavailable at more than 40 per cent of stations.
“Funding has sensibly been targeted where it can make the greatest difference to the most passengers, but this means smaller, rural stations are often last to be upgraded, creating a postcode lottery,” added Sam. “Access for All provisions are often delayed or cancelled despite committed funding and strong political will.
“Underspent budgets represent a tragedy for people awaiting upgrades and there are numerous innovative solutions in the supply chain to help overcome these problems and we strongly recommend their immediate adoption.”
The report explains how level boarding is being phased into metro systems at pace but is largely absent from main line rail. Onboard provisions vary enormously, largely depending on age and type of rolling stock which again means rural passengers suffer disproportionately.
The current solution to making travel arrangements, Passenger Assist, is frequently reported as unreliable, leaving passengers stranded or unable to board. International models demonstrate how technology can enhance reliability
and accountability in service delivery. Despite some operators demonstrating best practices, RIA found that wider adoption to business-as-usual remains slow.
“Digital accessibility also presents barriers, with many websites, ticketing platforms, and mobile apps not complying with accessibility guidelines,” commented Sam. “Deaf and blind passengers face challenges at stations due to inadequate audio announcements, unclear visual displays, and the lack of British Sign Language departure boards.
“Visually impaired, neurodivergent, and other disabled passengers struggle to access essential travel information; however, RIA members and other organisations have solutions to some of these problems, but uptake is slow and inconsistent.”
Solving these problems is not just about enabling those with disabilities to travel in an equitable manner. There are many in society who directly or indirectly benefit from an accessible transport system, such as the elderly, parents with children, and the neurodiverse.
Sam explained: “The supply chain is poised with innovative solutions to help solve many of these problems, but it is often hamstrung by Government bureaucracy and delay. To help speed adoption, our report presents five clear and evidenced key asks.
“If adopted, we believe they will make a tangible impact on the accessibility of the rail network, enabling equality, changing countless lives for the better, boosting economic productivity and enabling our industry to meet its legal and moral obligations.”
Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Life Peer and former Paralympic Athlete, who has written a foreword in the report, has recognised that there have been some glimmers of hope of progress with some great people working in the railway, but that we must work out how we get from where we are, to where disabled people have equal access.
“This report is an opportunity to highlight the challenges that disabled people face,” she said. “It lets us think what good might look like and it clearly lays out the challenge to the sector.”
However, there is no avoiding some disappointing facts and figures that Baroness Grey-Thompson, someone who works in the space, has found difficult to read about. The examples she gives are the fact people have had to turn down work or have missed an interview, purely linked to the inaccessibility of the network.
“The personal impact of inaccessibility should not be underestimated,” she said. “I know from my own personal experience that, on top of all the travelling I do anyway, I can spend hours extra every week having to plan and book my journeys. Hours more than a non-disabled person would have to.
“The social and economic case for improvement is clearly stated. In the next couple of years, we have the chance to achieve that improvement through continued campaigning and legislation.
“This could be the best opportunity for change that we have seen in a long time, and this report helps remind us all why we need to work harder to bring about that change.”
You can read the full report here: https://shorturl.at/lf5mJ
A rail network accessible to all is not just a legal and moral imperative, but there are significant positive social, economic and environment impacts too
James Loach, Security and Training Specialist at Premier Security 247 UK Ltd, explains how cost-effective security strategies can safeguard the UK’s rail infrastructure and passengers
The safety and security of the UK rail network has never been more critical.
With growing passenger numbers, expanding infrastructure, and evolving security challenges, partnering with a trusted security provider is essential to ensure protection across stations, depots, and other facilities.
Premier Security 247 UK Ltd (Premier Security 247) delivers comprehensive, tailored security services designed to protect assets, employees, and passengers that rely on the rail network every day.
A trusted security partner for the rail industry
James Loach, Security and Training Specialist at Premier Security 247, outlines the company’s commitment to providing flexible, effective security solutions. James’ experience in overseeing security for high-risk individuals and organisations enables him to
understand the importance of delivering precise, wellexecuted safety measures.
“At Premier Security 247, we provide security solutions tailored to the rail industry,” James explained. “Whether it’s preventing theft, responding to critical incidents, or ensuring passenger safety, our services offer peace of mind 24/7.”
One of the standout offerings from Premier Security 247 is its Rapid Deployment CCTV Systems. These mobile surveillance solutions are ideal for high-risk or emergency areas requiring immediate coverage. With high-definition Bi-Spectrum thermal cameras, these systems provide real-time monitoring that helps deter criminal activity, manage crowd control, and support emergency response efforts.
“Our mobile systems are easy to deploy with minimal disruption to operations,” James said. “They
provide continuous surveillance and support local teams in addressing security breaches and threats effectively.”
K9 dog handlers for enhanced security
Premier Security 247 offers K9 dog handler services as part of its comprehensive security solutions. Trained to detect explosives, drugs, and other prohibited substances, these K9 units serve as a powerful deterrent to criminal activity, including trespassing and terrorism-related threats.
“For the rail industry, where safety is paramount, our K9 units provide unmatched security,” James noted. “Their fast response time and ability to manage critical situations make them an invaluable asset.”
Manned guarding: On-the-ground security
Premier Security 247 also provides highly trained
security officers for manned guarding across various rail locations in the UK. Fully vetted and equipped with training in emergency response, first aid, and crowd management, these officers are prepared to handle any situation.
“Our guards offer not just security but also customer service for passengers,” James said. “Their presence acts as a visible deterrent to crime and builds confidence among the public and staff, ensuring a safe environment.”
Mobile response teams: Swift action when needed
When quick action is needed, Premier Security 247’s mobile response teams are deployed to provide immediate intervention. Positioned across the rail network, these teams are ready to respond swiftly to security breaches or emergencies, ensuring that critical assets remain secure.
“Our response units are equipped with advanced communication tools and surveillance technology,” James explained. “They handle everything from trespassing to potential terror threats, offering efficient responses wherever needed.”
Electronic entry systems and perimeter security
To protect sensitive areas and control access to highsecurity zones, Premier Security 247 offers state-ofthe-art electronic entry systems. These systems, which include biometric readers, RFID, and proximity cards, ensure that only authorized personnel can access restricted areas.
Additionally, Premier Security 247 installs robust palisade fencing to protect rail infrastructure. Available with electric gate options, these fences provide superior protection against attempts to breach or damage critical assets.
“Our electronic access systems and fencing solutions integrate seamlessly with our other services, creating a comprehensive security strategy for stations, depots, and infrastructure,” said James.
24-hour monitoring for ongoing protection
All of Premier Security 247’s services are backed by 24-hour monitoring, ensuring constant oversight.
The company’s advanced control room operations monitor CCTV, access control points, and alarm signals, enabling immediate detection and response to any security breach.
“This round-the-clock monitoring is essential to maintaining security,” James said. “Even when our personnel aren’t on-site, our systems provide continuous surveillance, enabling us to respond quickly to threats and provide detailed incident reports.”
Commitment to excellence and compliance
Premier Security 247 is RISQS accredited and an ACS approved contractor, ranked among the top 10 per cent of security providers across the UK. The company adheres to the highest professional standards, ensuring its services meet the stringent safety and regulatory requirements of the UK rail network.
As an SIA Approved Contractor with a top 10 per cent SIA point score, Premier Security 247 is committed to providing high-level security services.
With Constructionline Gold membership and ISO 9001 certification, the company demonstrates its dedication to health, safety, and continuous improvement.
“At Premier Security 247, we combine state-ofthe-art technology with highly trained personnel to deliver integrated, tailored security solutions,” James concluded. “Whether you need temporary event security or a long-term plan for your facilities, we have the expertise and resources to protect your assets and ensure the safety of the UK rail network.”
www.premiersecurity247.co.uk james@premiersecurity247.co.uk 01623 471111
Whether it’s preventing theft, responding to critical incidents, or ensuring passenger safety, our services offer peace of mind 24/7
RISQS Accredited and ACS Approved Contractor, placed in the top 10 per cent of UK security providers.
SIA-approved contractor with a top 10 per cent SIA score of 115.
Constructionline Gold, ISO 9001 certification, and Business of the Year 2019 awards.
Comprehensive security services, including CCTV systems, K9 units, manned guarding, and mobile response teams.
Advanced electronic entry systems and durable palisade fencing for perimeter protection.
24-hour monitoring and rapid response capabilities for emergencies.
Jon Elphick, Director, WSP Rail Digital Advisory, has seen and infl uenced signifi cant technological change throughout his 30 years in control systems. The Professor of Railway Systems Integration explains what digital and AI could mean for transport systems and how Buzz Lightyear can help the industry move forward
We might not realise it yet, but we are fast approaching a new digital and data age, changing transport systems in ways we can’t yet fathom. Recent developments by Microsoft, using its revolutionary new topological superconductor material to create the Majorona 1 chip, lead some to believe that practical quantum computing will be a reality by the early 2030s. When quantum computers arrive, they will upend cryptography – the heart of all digital security and trust systems – and supercharge development of AI, making today’s iteration look about as sophisticated as Snake on a Nokia 6110.
Accelerating digital innovation and change
Today, the Digital Railway has become synonymous with the introduction of ETCS. If we are going to survive as an industry, we need to think bigger and embrace our digital future. Sectors like aviation, automotive and buildings are leading the way.
Digital project delivery, powered by AI (and quantum), could optimise every aspect of project delivery, from integration to design, simulation to assurance and testing. In the asset management sphere, this technology will instantly triage vast quantities of data and deliver predictive analytics, increasing the productivity of skilled staff.
It also promises to revolutionise rail operational control and planning, converging timetable planning, access planning and rostering with shortterm planning, service regulation, perturbation management and emergency response. This will improve service with better plans, optimal responses to events, and much better, tailored communications to staff and passengers. The UK railway costs £25 billion pa to run and currently this is 50 per cent funded by taxpayers. Digital innovation offers the rare possibility of increasing both efficiency and revenue.
It may be tempting to see this as an imagined future, a faraway dream. But it’s already here. Right now, WSP’s global Future Ready™ programme is helping clients unlock long-term digital potential: for example, we are applying AI to railway maintenance
I am confident that systems thinking, and a Pixar design-failimprove approach will deliver the game-changing potential promised by AIpowered digital transformation
and passenger data to prioritise spending where it will deliver most value; and we are using agentbased modelling to improve rail operational decision making. Excitingly, WSP recently signed a $1 billion partnership with Microsoft, which will enable my colleagues and I to leverage the power of best-in-class AI platforms to drive innovation further.
Pixar, the wildly successful animation studio responsible for such classics as Toy Story, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo, famously employs an approach of rigorously testing ideas, with a culture that sees early failures as the route to success. Rail would do well to take a leaf out of the Pixar book, and digital innovation can help. We need to integrate our requirements, and design tools, models and simulations, enabling the design-fail-improve cycle to start early in programmes, when the cost of change is low.
This not only makes sense – it has a strong theoretical foundation. Developing digital environments where we can test our ideas is the best way to mitigate the Illusion of Explanatory Depth (IoED) – the well-studied human bias that makes us believe we understand things better than we do. IoED affects all major railway projects, digital and otherwise, and digital project delivery can make a real difference, enabling a Pixar design-fail-improve approach.
power
Just as critical to successful major programmes and digital transformations are people. This is where systems thinking has a vital role to play. It encompasses so much more than the systems engineering that has been widely adopted on railway projects over the last 25 years. Systems thinking recognises and values how humans affect the railway and wider socio-technical systems; it unites the rich diversity of people, views and experiences represented within our modern railway.
It harnesses ideas and innovation and helps realise sustainable and adaptable organisations. At WSP we are committed to practical, value-adding systems thinking that makes a difference for communities and clients.
I am excited to be part of what is likely to be a period of rapid, technological change. I am confident that systems thinking, and a Pixar design-fail-improve approach will deliver the game-changing potential promised by AI-powered digital transformation.
www.wsp.com
Worldline’s Transport Markets Director, Martin Howell, discusses the transformative power of Artifi cial Intelligence (AI) and Artifi cial General Intelligence (AGI) in mobility
The only certainty around AI and its potential to transform the landscape of transport and mobility is that even the greatest human brain can’t begin to comprehend its possibilities.
“That reality underlines a never-beforeseen opportunity that will render both sectors unrecognisable far sooner than we know it,” said Worldline’s Transport Markets Director Martin Howell.
“The power of AI and AGI (highly autonomous AI that matches or surpasses human cognitive capabilities) is exciting and scary at the same time. But we have to be more imaginative and more driven by purpose because if we don’t make things happen, they will happen to us.
“As a society and as an industry we need to have a view of AI that changes as we go along. Only by being flexible and adaptable will we get the end goal we want to create.”
Martin admits we are currently “only in the foothills” of AI but said his future view and the need for checks and balances has grown even more focused with the recent arrival of his granddaughter.
“When you’re holding this little blob of beauty you think ‘what is your life going to be like?’ and the answer is ‘totally different to mine’” he added. “So as the responsible generation of today we need to stop ourselves from mucking it up for her.”
Worldline is leading the way in using the power of AI to enhance proactive and reactive planning and control around system coding, crew rostering, customer information and transaction automation –in a fraction of the time.
The automation of previously mundane tasks frees crew and staff to do their day jobs. It predicts lack of available personnel or rolling stock so teams can head off any customer issues around reliability and punctuality, ahead of time.
Martin, who called for a longer-term vision around technology’s transformative effect in a speech to the recent Interchange UK conference, said: “AI is augmenting our stock and crew rostering system to ensure trains are in the right place and the right people are available to operate them. It’s solving a manually intensive problem, improving efficiency and reducing costs in minutes rather than hours.”
Next steps will be the ability to analyse knock-on effects of an incident or overrunning works with more certainty than ever, and then share real-time travel options with the customer. Or even identifying stock or track that needs maintenance well before it becomes an issue.
Trust in public transport will be fuelled by more precise and reliable predictions alongside personalised content shared with the customer – central tenets of Worldline Chief Technology & Operations Officer James Bain’s speech to Transport Ticketing Global 25.
He highlighted younger generations embracing of “point-to-point” transport models such as Uber, a factor Martin said will drive change faster and further than ever. “Society has shifted dramatically in the last 15 years and people now expect information in their hands straight away, without having to look it up,” he explained.
“People want to find what they need instantly, pay for it and have it delivered quickly and efficiently. The same will apply to their transport choices, so eventually timetables may become redundant because trains will be run entirely according to increasingly accurate data-driven demand.”
Data and rewards hold the key
For younger customers who are less wary of using an app, sharing data and accepting reward-based
behaviours from ethically run businesses holds the key to how AI enhanced processes can be delivered for social good, both in urban and rural areas.
Societal factors such as where and how we work, economic need and the extent of Government interventions versus free market behaviour will be critical too, but there’s little doubt that a future of autonomous electric vehicles alongside changes we can’t yet foresee, will be the future.
for
Martin added: “In 200 years the railway is unlikely to exist in its current form because rail is a function of society and when, not if, society changes, we’ll all be working differently. That’s why it’s critical to think beyond immediate challenges and plan for a future with the almost incalculable impact of AGI at its core.
“Of course, we’d be foolish not to solve the immediate problems that are a legacy of the past but at the same time, we must plan for a future with all the exciting potential of AGI. It’s not easy because there are possibilities we can’t even imagine now, but by continuously interrogating the direction we’re going in with all the tools available we can create something transformative and good.”
To discover the latest news from Worldline visit LinkedIn - Worldline Mobility & e-Transactional Services
Innovation. One of the most talked about topics on the railway – but do we all understand what it means? John Paul Lawrence, Director at
JPL Diversified
explores the question
ne of my favourite descriptions of innovation is that it is the process of turning an invention into a commercial success, at scale. A two-step process of creating something new that has the potential to become a commercial success - the invention - and then the process of moulding, shaping and transiting the invention through the respective business processes and into service, with a final step of proving the impact of the deployment – the innovation.
Sounds easy when you write it down. A simple matter of building the right thing (understanding requirements), building the thing right (understanding standards), then setting it to work (understanding process and culture) and measuring the results (good luck with that). Nice and easy until you add people into the mix, and organisational culture, and the day job, and procurement, and politics, and budgets, and change. More often than not, the process of innovation in rail is spectacularly labyrinthine - and constantly changing.
In my 20-odd years on the railway, and the important foundation of 15 years I spent outside of rail, I’ve always sought to find ways to innovate and to improve business performance. It’s how I’m made and it’s a vocation, so regardless of the role, I’ve always tried to drive continuous improvement into wherever I am, whether that was in the maintenance delivery unit, engineering, projects, operations, business improvement, research and development (R&D), client organisation, Tier 1 supplier or SME. It’s been a battle I’ve enjoyed, despite the knocks along the way, and I’ve learned from some hard mistakes and some great successes, plus all the bits in between.
One of the key frustrations I have had in all my roles, up until setting up JPL Diversified, was that I was forever constrained to a single plane of motion when it came to being able to make a change. I was always in a fixed department, under a budget, with a directorate that kept me working in the Y-plane, when many of the improvements I needed to make required me to work in the x and z planes, also. Inevitably, when
I did try to stray outside the lines I tended to hit upon politics and personalities that prevented me from joining the required dots. Being a disrupter hasn’t always been seen as a positive thing.
There have been some notable exceptions to this. My work on enabling the introduction of the West Coast 2008 Very High Frequency Timetable was one. A special project and team set up under the auspices of working cross-functionally to remove the barriers to enable the train operator to sign network change and allow Network Rail to generate the uplift in revenue expected from the West Coast Route Mod. It was a team set up with the objective of joining the dots to solve cross-functional problems and had the benefits of there being a burning platform requiring change, a top quality, cherry-picked team and a very effective leader who understood the culture of the organisation and how to bring people together. It was an invaluable learning experience for me, with pats on the back and slapped wrists all being lessons learned and earned. The work that came from it enabled me
to develop a full end-to-end process of improvement that drove up performance on a single asset by 50 per cent, but more importantly gave me a fantastic understanding of what is really required to make change happen within the culture of the railway. And perhaps a few things not to do, also, on reflection.
Another good example that shared many of the above traits was my work on maintenance improvement in the route in the mid 2000s. Although this was ostensibly a role constrained by department, it was not constrained by having to work in one part of the lifecycle. Having free reign to work from idea, through business case development, sponsorship and the whole business, project and product lifecycle covering business, technical, process and political problems was a great learning exercise for running an end-to-end improvement. This role also enjoyed many of the other aspects mentioned above; a leader that was demanding, clear and unambiguous, who understood how to get things done within the political landscape of the railway, a great team motivated and empowered to perform and no false barriers that forced me to work in a box when it came to solving problems.
So, what has this got to do with enabling innovation. Plenty in actual fact. If we were to look at many of the notable inventions that have become innovations over the last 20 years, they have shared many of the same characteristics. To pick a small set of examples, TPWS+, Adjustable Stretcher Bars and The New Measurement Train. Bringing maintenance back in house and in the project space the GRIP and latterly the PACE process all shared many of the attributes of the examples mentioned above. Many examples of recovery from significant incidents and accidents, such as train crashes, fires, floods and catastrophic asset failure, where we regularly speak of the railway family coming together to get us back moving, benefitted from having a shared purpose, clear leadership, the right resource and a single open pathway to success. A burning platform for change that requires people to come together, crossfunctionally and outside of departments to solve a problem, quickly, effectively and with measured results, without allowing the day job and usual constraints to prevent change from happening. So how do we capture the essence of these
examples of success and learn from all the inventions that didn’t become innovations, despite being laden with potential? We have one of the most challenging organisational structures at the moment, with respect to being able to work across function and lifecycle. However, conversely, we’ve got one of the most open playing fields for innovation since I joined the industry over 20 years ago.
They do say that impecunity is the mother of invention, well we’re seeing a maintenance and project organisation that is more open to change and improvement than I’ve ever seen but are more difficult than ever to work with, with respect to being able to devote time and budget to supporting innovation at the coal face. The required change, therefore, to me is obvious. Creating a funded matrix organisation, under GBR, taking all the attributes of a ‘special project’ tasked with creating a clear and consistent set of innovation pathways from idea through to front line use. Setting them up with demanding and clear objectives and empowering the team with leaders who understand the politics, landscape, people and processes to create change. Enabling cross functional delivery teams who can draw on the experience of innovators and subject matter experts in the project, operations, maintenance and engineering space and creating new processes that clarify requirements, manage safety and assurance and measure results. All without having to impact the already over-burdened means of getting an innovation into service – the delivery unit, ops teams and project delivery.
Why not also add into the mix an objective of creating export-ready products, systems and processes making the team revenue-generating with respect to UK PLC? A fully closed-loop, agile and enabled team to specify the need, link the stakeholders, identify funding, create the required glide paths from R&D into service and out into the world. Let’s get cracking!
JPL Diversified is a company set up to help bridge the innovation gap for SMEs and large companies alike. Building on 20 plus years’ experience of change and improvement in the industry with links across other industries to enable best practice and technology transfer into rail.
www.jpldiversified.co.uk/
A global leader in Location Master Data Management (LMDM), 1Spatial helps organisations to automate the assessment, enhancement, and governance of spatial and non-spatial data. info@1spatial.com www.1spatial.com 01223 420414
Innovative, collaborative, and dedicated, Bam Nuttall is one of the industry’s leading civil engineering specialists. business.development@bamnuttall.co.uk www.bamnuttall.co.uk 02032 051950
BSquare Controls delivers complex automation projects across sectors including infrastructure, transportation and manufacturing. enquires@b2controls.co.uk www.b2controls.co.uk 01613 273019
At Creactive Design Transport, our knowledge of the mobility sector – particularly in design rail and its commercial application through design management –is a valuable resource. design@creactive-design.co.uk www.creactive-design.co.uk 01926 290450
Enable My Team (EMT) believe that projects deserve to break free from vendor lock-in and data silos. help@enablemyteam.com www.enablemyteam.com
With 3,000+ employed worldwide staff we harness the power of global teams to deliver rail design and consultancy at scale to achieve unmatched cost efficiencies. uk@aarvee.net www.aarvee.co.uk 07330 4303404
A subsidiary of Barhale Holdings plc, civil engineering and infrastructure specialist Barhale Ltd provides maintenance, design, and construction services to the transport industry. opportunities@barhale.co.uk www.barhale.co.uk 01923 474500
Our aim is that the name Composite Braiding Ltd is synonymous with ‘Quality’ in the minds of our customers. enquiries@compositebraiding.com www.compositebraiding.com 01332 742638
DB Engineering & Consulting GmbH (DB E&C) delivers railway projects in more than 100 countries around the world. inquiries.dbec@deutschebahn.com www.db-engineering-consulting.com 01213 143628
Frazer-Nash Consultancy provides expert support for rail clients, helping them to gain a commercial and technical advantage.. rail@fnc.co.uk www.fnc.co.uk 07892 705449
Furrer+Frey GB Limited (Overhead Contact Lines) design and supply overhead electrification equipment. Including the development of systems and products. ndolphin@furrerfrey.co.uk www.furrerfrey.ch 02037 405455
Henry Williams Ltd was formed in Glasgow in 1883, and we manufacture control and signalling equipment for the rapidly expanding rail network. sales@hwilliams.co.uk hwilliams.co.uk 01325 462722
We develop digital solutions that support continuous improvement and transform workforce operations.. hello@intoware.com www.intoware.com 01159 778969
Jobson James Rail is a national specialist railway insurance broker, the market leader in the UK by a huge margin with over 1,000+ rail clients across the UK, Middle East and Australasia. keven.parker@jjrail.co.uk www.jjrail.co.uk 07816 283949
The LOST software fundamentally changes the way in which people and companies find each other within the transport sector. gemma@lost.careers www.lost-group.co.uk
Mainframe Communications has developed a wide range of optical fibre and associated management products for telecommunications operators. sales@mainframecomms.co.uk www.mainframecomms.co.uk/rail-metro 01702 443800
Gleeds work with public and private sector clients in, primarily, the commercial aspects of the planning, development and delivery of railway assets, systems and services. london@gleeds.com www.gleeds.com 02076 317000
iLECSYS Rail Ltd delivers collaborative, large-scale projects, working closely with Tier 1 suppliers and SMEs. info@ilecsysrail.co.uk www.ilecsysrail.co.uk 01844 397300
Software development specialist ITAL delivers stateof-the-art SaaS technology to the transport industry, focusing on revenue protection and rail operations. sales@ital-uk.com www.italgroup.tech 03300 225022
Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems UK offers a comprehensive portfolio of rail systems and brands – all of which are supported by its specialist RailServices division. railenquiries.mlk@knorr-bremse.com www.knorr-bremse.com 01225 898700
Machine With Vision develops pioneering solutions for the rail sector. www.machineswithvision.com
RBDMedia
Community
mbpc Infrastructure limited provides a range of construction project control services to the civil engineering and building industries (both in the UK and internationally.) info@michaelbyng.com www.michaelbyng.com 01675 463956
For over 50 years, Jones Nuttall Ltd, based in Warrington, Cheshire, has been at the forefront of precision engineering, specialising in rail overhaul, refurbishment, CNC machining, and fabrication. Our extensive experience and customer-focused approach have allowed us to forge long-standing partnerships with some of the UK’s largest rail operators, including Metrolink, part of the iconic yellow Bee Network.
As the Bee Network continues to grow, Metrolink has ambitious plans to expand its tram network over the next 10 years, providing even more seamless connectivity across Greater Manchester. Jones Nuttall is proud to play a pivotal role in this expansion, contributing our engineering expertise to ensure the reliability and safety of the system as it evolves.
Our partnership with Metrolink is built on trust, reliability, and innovation. By supplying precision-engineered rail components, we play a crucial role in maintaining and upgrading their tram network. One of the standout projects has been the refurbishment and moderniation of Metrolink’s electro-magnetic track brake systems—essential emergency braking systems that provide additional stopping power in critical situations. These systems are vital for the safe and efficient operation of trams, activating during emergencies to deliver fast, reliable braking independent of the vehicle’s primary brake system. Our engineering expertise allows us to breathe new life into aging parts, offering cost-effective solutions to replace discontinued components without compromising performance, ensuring these systems remain reliable and effective for years to come.
At Jones Nuttall, we maintain full control over production through our comprehensive in-house machining capabilities. Whether it’s producing aluminum rubbing plates or other critical components on our CNC milling machines, we ensure every part meets the highest precision and quality standards demanded by the rail industry.
Beyond component manufacturing, we specialise in refurbishment and modifications. Our work on electro-magnetic track brake systems is a prime example of how we help our clients maintain safety and operational efficiency. By refurbishing these emergency braking systems, we ensure trams are equipped to handle critical braking situations, significantly enhancing both safety and reliabilitity while minimising downtime and operational costs. As a company, we are dedicated to advancing the rail industry by investing in the latest technology, skilled engineering talent, and innovative processes. This commitment enables us to meet the evolving needs of the sector, delivering high-quality solutions on time and within budget.
With Metrolink’s future expansion plans on the horizon, Jones Nuttall is excited to continue our partnership, providing the precision engineering expertise necessary to support the modernization and growth of the Bee Network. Our focus on precision engineering, innovation, and customer satisfaction makes us the ideal partner for rail operators seeking to enhance performance, safety, and longevity in their fleets.
A leading supplier of M2M solutions, and the UK’s first integrated airtime provider. Enquire@mobiusnetworks.co.uk www.mobiusnetworks.co.uk 01530 511109
PACE Infrastructure Solutions is a construction delivery and professional services company that predominately provides ancillary Civils and E&P services to all rail systems projects.. www.pace-is.co.uk 02036 338019
We combine our rich heritage with an innovative approach, to deliver to our customers cutting-edge data and video technology with exceptional customer service. rail@petards.com www.petards.com 01914 203000
RazorSecure are rail cyber security specialists offering products and services to enhance railway cyber security, by protecting networks and monitoring key systems. contact@razorsecure.com www.razorsecure.com
Schneider Electric serves customers in over 100 countries, helping them to manage their energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. gb-customerservices@gb.schneider-electric.com www.se.com 08706 088608
SELLA CONTROLS is an independent engineering company specialising in the design and supply of integrated safety control and automation systems. sales@sellacontrols.com www.sellacontrols.com 01614 29500
MPEC Technology Ltd is an industry leader in condition monitoring and remote event solutions. andrew.whawell@mpec.co.uk www.mpec.co.uk 01332 363979
We define the industry standard for rail fastening systems and aluminothermic welding and have created rail infrastructure in more than 100 countries. info@pandrol.com www.pandrol.com 01909 476101
QTS Group specialises in rail engineering, infrastructure, electrification, design, and training.. info@qtsgroup.com www.qtsgroup.com 01357 440222
Roxtec cable, pipe and conduit seals protect rail assets against fire, smoke, water, rodents, gas, vibration, humidity, dust, and EMI.. info@uk.roxtec.com www.roxtec.com 01617 615280
Seetru Limited is a UK-based manufacturing company with strong domestic and international sales, both direct to the customer and through our extensive distributor network. sales@seetru.com www.seetru.com 01179 306100
Sigtech Rail Consultancy provide high quality signalling support for plain line and S&C renewals, as well as signalling assistance for civil work in the rail industry. Office@SigTechRail.co.uk www.sigtechrail.co.uk 01303 764344
A consultancy which specialises in offering engineering management and system assurance services, supporting clients in the delivery and securing acceptance of new and novel technology. info@synergyrail.co.uk www.synergyrail.co.uk 07788 924444
At Telent Technology Services Ltd we’re maintaining ‘operationally critical’ telecommunications systems that keep stations open and trains running. services@telent.com www.telent.com 01926 693000
At UXcentric our passion is helping people and empowering them to do more, complete tasks simply and successfully, have a good time and stay safe. darren@uxcentric.co.uk www.uxcentric.co.uk 07854 781908
Vossloh Cogifer UK Limited specialises in the design and manufacture of switches and crossings for all types of railways. david.walters@vossloh-cogifer.com www.vossloh.com/en/ 01724 862131
A smart and comprehensive consultancy service designed to cover entire project lifecycles and beyond. Engineering management, signalling design, installation, test and commissioning, operational maintenance. enquiries@xrailgroup.com www.xrailgroup.com 03450 600700
TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation. roy.spencer@tcs.com www.tcs.com 02072 451800
Tracsis plc develops, supplies and aggregates resource optimisation, data capture, and reporting technologies to the rail industry. info@tracsis.com www.tracsis.com 08451 259162
VEDA Associates provides multi-disciplinary innovative engineering services to the rail industry. justyna.jakubowska@veda.co.uk www.veda.co.uk
We are experts in design and build services for temporary, enabling and permanent works, including HV/LV distribution, lighting, telecoms, pumping, HVAC and ventilation. www.vvb-eng.com 01268 711845
Zonegreen specialise in modern rail depot protection and are regarded as the world market leaders with the SMART Depot Personnel Protection System (DPPS). info@zonegreen.co.uk www.zonegreen.co.uk 01142 300822
To be featured in the Rail Supplier Directory contact Fiona Broomfield on 07949 409 829 or email fiona@railbusinessdaily.com
Costain has appointed Alistair Geddes as Rail Sector Director. Joining from Balfour Beatty, he will support Costain’s strategic focus on growth in strong markets, as well as ensure the business continues to provide predictable, best-in-class delivery to its customers
What attracted you to the role at Costain?
I’ve always been impressed with the people at Costain – they have a great reputation for its engineering expertise and building respected, longterm relationships with their customers and supply chain partners. Costain is also known for its heritage – it is celebrating its 160th anniversary this year – and a fantastic track record delivering complex rail infrastructure such as the Channel Tunnel and Crossrail. Part of its secret, I think, is to do with its ability to bring the right people to the table early in the engagement and answer customers’ questions with clever solutions. It’s this ‘getting it right first time’ approach to engineering that really fits with my personal values.
What are your aims and aspirations?
It’s a hugely exciting time to be working in infrastructure. Everywhere you look, in water, energy, road, airports and ports, new and upgraded infrastructure is needed to ensure the UK remains economically prosperous and resilient. Rail will
Part of its secret, I think, is to do with its ability to bring the right people to the table early in the engagement and answer customers’ questions with clever solutions
be playing a vitally important role in delivering economic growth; I genuinely believe we’re in a golden generation for rail. The UK needs a robust and connected rail network to enable people and materials to move around the country and unlock upgrades across the infrastructure ecosystem. For me, demonstrating how Costain consistently offers value-for-money to its customers through the delivery of predictable, best-in-class rail infrastructure will be hugely important.
What are the biggest challenges facing infrastructure projects and what is going to be the key in overcoming them?
Improving the UK’s rail infrastructure helps to create a sustainable future that drives economic prosperity and productivity and transforms communities. However, there are challenges that must be overcome, such as growing and changing populations and more extreme weather patterns.
Anyone who has been involved in delivering complex transportation projects knows that
Geobear is the pioneer of ground improvement using geopolymer injection. Our solutions have been developed over 40 years through rigorous R&D and testing.
Our team of chartered engineers design and provide efficient solutions to solve the most complex ground problems.
Geopolymer injection solutions are perfect for ground engineering challenges where existing site conditions require modification to improve ground stability. This provides the necessary fortification against environmental conditions that will extend the life of buildings and infrastructure assets.
Geobear solutions will resolve engineering challenges such as:
• Infrastructure and utility settlement
• Building subsidence /structural movement
• Embankment instability
• Rail slab settlement
• Sinking concrete and flexible roads
Low carbon: Up to 75% less carbon emitted compared to alternative methods
Deliverability: Sites can be worked on and operable in one day / possession
Speed: Sites stabilised and ground improved in days, not weeks/ months
Access: Minimal access needs, one injection unit at up to 100 metre distance
Disruption: No major plant required for excavation
Clean: 16mm drilled holes, no site clean up required
Life extension: Reduces need to renew assets
planning and early contractor involvement is essential for schemes to be delivered on time, on budget and with minimal disruption to operations. Having long-term clarity of the direction of travel and a clear understanding of the goal and agreed outcomes from the start is really important. The Government’s forthcoming 10-year infrastructure strategy should make it easier for different projects to be planned together, with a consistent pipeline of activity that will support jobs, skills and the supply chain. Starting every project with the end in mind helps everyone to focus and pull in the same direction.
Reflecting on your career, you’ve worked on some fascinating projects, from Crossrail and Hinkley Point C Marine, through to the Olympic Stadium transformation – how proud are you of what you have achieved and what have you learnt from being involved in these projects?
I’m incredibly proud of the projects that I’ve worked on. I use the Elizabeth line every day and seeing other passengers using it acts as a daily reminder of how a complex infrastructure project like that can give people better lives through improved journey times
Marie Daly has been announced as the new COO at TfW, taking on the role from 1 April, this year.
She is currently TfW’s Chief Customer and Culture Officer, bringing more than 17 years of experience in the rail industry with a strong track record in operational leadership, customer experience and cultural transformation. She has held key roles, including Deputy Chief Operating Officer at TfW and Service Delivery Director at Metrolink.
Marie said: “I’m extremely proud and excited to step into the role as COO. Having been part of this organisation since 2018, I’ve seen first-hand the progress we’ve made and I’m eager to continue driving change.
“My focus will be on ensuring operational and customer excellence every day, making it easier for colleagues to deliver for customers and maximising the benefits of our transformation investments to improve services for the people of Wales.”
It’s about getting a deep understanding of the outcome, working collaboratively in partnerships to unlock the best solutions for the project to succeed
Ellie Burrows has officially started her role as MD for Network Rail’s Eastern Region, working alongside the newly appointed Deputy Regional MD James Burles in providing executive guidance and leadership across the East Coast, North and East, East Midlands, and Anglia Routes.
She will play a key role in delivering Network Rail’s control period commitments and driving sustainable improvements for passengers and freight users –connecting communities across cities including Leeds, Sheffield, Derby, Norwich, Cambridge and London.
Ellie replaces Jake Kelly, who is returning to the North West & Central Region as its new Regional MD.
She said: “I am delighted to be joining Network Rail’s Eastern Region at such an important time for our railway. I look forward to working with colleagues and industry partners to deliver the safe, reliable service that our passengers and freight customers deserve.”
and greater connectivity. It’s something I get a real buzz from. But for me, it’s not just what we do but how we do it that matters.
It’s about getting a deep understanding of the outcome, working collaboratively in partnerships to unlock the best solutions for the project to succeed. Engineering is an iterative process, with each version acting as an improvement on the last. I’m passionate about delivering projects efficiently, innovatively and sustainably while maximising value for our customers. It’s about continually improving and challenging ourselves to be better.
Are you optimistic for the future, particularly in light of recent Costain contract wins for HS2?
We’re in a golden generation for rail and it’s an exciting time to be working in the industry. Costain continues to expand its portfolio of work in rail and recently won two major rail systems contracts with HS2. In addition, we’re providing consulting services, such as being a key partner to protect the rail network from extreme weather, advising on station upgrades and development of local infrastructure plans, and working with Network Rail to improve train safety and performance.
GWSR, which owns and operates the 14-mile heritage line between Cheltenham Racecourse and Broadway, has appointed Professor John Dora as its new Chairman.
Professor Dora is an acknowledged expert in the resilience of infrastructure to climate change and is Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at the University of Birmingham and also a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey. He was technical adviser to the joint Network Rail and Rail Safety Standards Board programme on climate risks (TRaCCA) as well as convenor of the team responsible for the International Standards Organisation’s climate change adaptation standards.
Professor Dora said: “As a shareholder I have long admired the way that the GWSR has developed to become one of the leading attractions in the Cotswolds, as well as dealing with significant infrastructure issues such as landslips and restoration of Stanway Viaduct.”
A replacement for the existing Block Controller for single line track.
Our fully digital version of key token equipment communicates digitally through IP based systems, including provision for TPWS and section signal release.
The DiBloC features:
•IP connectivity with two redundant connections
•Physical key compatibility with existing key token machine equipment such as ground frame locks
•Ability to work in sets of 2-6 units
•Ability to operate TPWS and/or single throw/starting signals
•No on-board equipment –compatibility with all rolling stock
An inspiring range of initiatives, delivered by community groups, partnerships, and volunteers across Britain, have been celebrated at the 2025 Community Rail Awards
Greening Arundel
More than 500 guests have come together to celebrate a diverse array of projects supporting diversity, accessibility and inclusion, sustainable travel and tourism, youth and schools engagement, community-led station improvements, and influencing positive change at the 20th anniversary of the Community Rail Awards.
The Community Rail Network event, held at Newcastle’s Civic Centre last month, saw 20 winners chosen from nearly 230 entries. Over the past 20 years, judges have reviewed 4,500 entries to the prestigious awards, demonstrating the impact of the community rail movement, empowering communities, enhancing local places, and enriching lives.
The 2025 awards, with headline partners Lumo, were held to honour the wider railway industry’s celebration of 200 years since the birth of modern railways, with guests addressed by transport ministers from the UK, Welsh, and Scottish Governments, plus senior rail industry leaders.
The winners:
The Outstanding Contribution to Community Rail Award was awarded to both Kent Community Rail Partnership (CRP) and Greening Arundel
Kent CRP has delivered a host of inspirational community initiatives over the past 22 years, including recent projects to empower students with additional needs to bring improvements to local station environments through biodiversity, gardening and art projects, collaborating with diverse groups with lived experience to overcome accessibility barriers to rail travel, and transforming Hollingbourne Station
into a thriving community hub.
Greening Arundel, a passionate alliance of individuals and organisations dedicated to driving environmental change in Arundel, in just two years has transformed the station and its environs to create a safer, more welcoming space which encourages biodiversity, active travel and community engagement.
In other categories, the Robin Hood Line CRP took the Involving Children and Young People Award for its Fusion Learning engineering project, which saw students create a metal woolly mammoth structure for Creswell Station, while the Empowering Diverse Groups prize was won by Community Rail Cumbria and partners for the Beyond the Home scheme, which supports disabled people to overcome the challenges they face when travelling by train.
Tyne Valley CRP, the Cumbrian Coast Line CRP, the Bishop Line CRP, and Co-Creative Connection triumphed in the Community Creative Projects and Station Arts category for their activities at stations between Whitehaven and Newcastle, Shildon, and Finsbury Park, while the Friends of Bishopstone Station CIC took the Small Projects Award for its event celebrating the geographical and social history of Bishopstone Station and the Lewes to Seaford railway line.
Gloucestershire CRP won Most Effective Communications Campaign for its celebration of the county’s diverse cultural heritage with Black History Month Every Month, while the Bishop Line CRP scooped the Tourism and Leisure Award for its Explore the Bishop Line by Train this Summer marketing campaign, which saw passenger numbers at some
stations on the line increase by almost 200 per cent.
The Friends of Blair Atholl Station took the Best Community Engagement Project for its intergenerational Sharing our Past, Building our Future multimedia project, and the Influencing Positive Change and Sustainability prize was won by Gloucestershire CRP for its Youth Travel Toolkit.
Severnside CRP took the Most Enhanced Railway Spaces prize for the Mike Hodge Community Room at Bridgwater Station, the Friends of Buxton Station won the platinum award in the It’s Your Station category, and the Settle-Carlisle Railway Development Company won the photo competition.
Jaymii Claxton was recognised in the Outstanding Volunteer Contribution category for her tireless efforts engaging the local community in Bulwell Station, and the Community Rail Network Board’s Special Recognition Award went to Brian Barnsley for his 25 years of dedication to the community rail movement.
Bill Freeman, Interim Chief Executive, Community Rail Network, said: “Our Community Rail Awards give deserved recognition to community rail partnerships, groups and volunteers across Britain and now beyond. It’s a fantastic achievement to be able to celebrate two decades of recognising the outstanding work of community rail, especially during this special Railway 200 year.
“Our congratulations go to all our winners, and thanks to everyone who supports and champions community rail across the rail and transport field, helping the movement to go from strength to strength.”
We are at the forefront of providing innovative technical solutions which enables our clients to meet their sustainability objectives.
Our inspired thinking approach allows us to utilise our long-term expertise to work in partnership with our clients to deliver resilient, bespoke and cost efficient solutions.
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