Innovation

With the ever-present focus on putting passengers first, train reliability has to be high up the priority list to achieve this. Modern rolling stock is being equipped with many electronic systems that bring their own maintenance and reliability challenges.

In this digital age, railways are harvesting increasing volumes of data (‘Big Data’) on the performance of their assets but converting raw data into meaningful information remains a challenge for many organisations in the industry. One...

Major projects, new trains, bewildering technology: these are the big-ticket items that command everyone’s attention these days. And why wouldn’t they? Who cares about the high-volume, low-cost bits and pieces that literally hold the railway together? Nuts, bolts, pins, clips,...

AECOM, the global infrastructure services firm, is developing one of the UK’s first 3D-printed commercial products made from graphene-reinforced polymer. The company’s CNCTArch is designed to drive down the costs associated with installing digital signalling systems on transport networks, using a...

The Shepperton branch line in the south west of London and north Surrey, which is part of the Feltham signal box area, connects to the Kingston loop by a triangular junction between Strawberry Hill and Teddington stations. The line opened...

For the first time, a foreign team has won the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Railway Challenge competition. Organised by the IMechE’s Railway Division, the Railway Challenge provides a great opportunity for aspiring teams to compete in...

The UK rail network is under continuous improvement by the operators, which creates certain demands on the type of DC-DC power converters required. Especially critical is the requirement for suitably isolated units. The extensive range of...

Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education’s (BCRRE) research into the application of fuel cells and hydrogen in railway traction system design stretches back over the last decade and beyond. Hydrogen, in combination with a fuel cell, was identified by...

For ten years, the innovation conference run by the Railway Industry Association (RIA) has gone from strength to strength and, in 2018, won the Trade Association Forum’s best conference award. This year, it attracted a record 288 delegates and took...

Several railway engineering companies featured strongly at the recent Plantworx Innovation Awards, and several others of the innovations that were applauded have obvious applications in the sector. These were indications of the stronger links between Plantworx organiser the Construction Equipment Association...