An event in March hosted by Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) highlighted the projects that have been supported through the Railway Construction programme. The programme competition, which started in 2022, has been funded by the Department for Business and Trade and delivered by Innovate UK, with teams installing their projects at the GCRE site.
GCRE was established in 2021 with a commitment of £50 million from the Welsh Government. The UK Government has provided £20 million and a further £7.4 million is being provided through Innovate UK for Research and Development. The site spans the former Nant Helen opencast site and Onllwyn Washery, and the Neath Port Talbot and Powys local authority area in South Wales.
Subject to raising the required funding, the GCRE facility will include two electrified rail test loops, one a 7km-high speed rolling stock track with a maximum speed of around 177km/h (with potential for 201km/h) and another infrastructure test track. The facilities will include a dual-platform test environment, rolling stock storage and maintenance facilities, operations room, staff accommodation and connections to the main line. There will also be visitor and conference facilities, a business park and a hotel.
At the event, 12 projects took the opportunity to showcase their equipment and technology including self-healing concrete, new drone technology, and more cost-effective forms of electrification and signalling. The demonstrations were established across the extensive GCRE site, with two inside the centre’s offices, seven around the sidings near the main building, and three close to the boundary with Network Rail.
The projects
With its Indus system using telecoms fibre cables to remotely sense activities, Focus Sensors has developed multiple fibre sensing use cases to benefit the rail industry. These include enhanced safety, with intruder detection at large sites reducing need and cost of physical barriers and cameras. Additional uses include monitoring embankment slips, geotechnical changes and track stability, ground saturation monitoring, finding water leaks, and detecting wheel impacts.
During the day, Focus Sensors demonstrated accurate detection of intrusion using GCRE’s trackside optical fibres. A pre-defined 8-metre x 2-metre alarm zone was established, and this alarmed only when an intrusion into the area occurred, with no false positive alarms from the 200 visitors and innovators moving and working around the site. Focus Sensors is now trialling the system alongside a working railway on the Anglia route, part of Network Rail’s Eastern region.
Based locally in Central Newport, Wales, Ingram Networks Ltd is developing an ultra-fast train communications system to transform passenger Wi-Fi. It says its solution is suitable for all environments (rural and urban), and the technology will improve the customer experience and improve the productivity for those wishing to work during their journey. Ingram Networks are in active discussions with Transport for Wales, and intend to use the GCRE facility to showcase their solution to other operators both in the UK and worldwide.
Universal Signalling Ltd was founded in 2022 to commercialise intellectual property which has been under development by the founders since 2018. Universal Signalling says its goal is to bring revolution to the worldwide railway signalling market through a blend of technology, operating model, and open interface specification.
Working alongside a number of supporting partners including Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE), Universal Signalling are to deploy an overlay of its Universal Interlocking system to the GCRE track and look forward to being part of GCRE’s journey, through the construction phase and into operations.
Following the demonstration day, Universal Signalling announced the securing of the first tranche of its pre-seed investment round. This was led by SFC Capital, with additional funding provided by a group of business angels. GCRE said this was a great output from the day and exactly the kind of thing they wanted the projects involved to achieve.
Furrer+Frey AG, a supplier of overhead contact line systems in Switzerland and around the world, had two projects on display at GCRE. The first, called CODES (COst-reducing Dynamic Electrification gradient System), demonstrated a design to allow for the easy adjustment of the height of a catenary. The second was a composite cantilever that is both lighter and less susceptible to corrosion than traditional overhead contact line system cantilevers and called ICAGE (Innovative CAntilever for Greener Electrification).
Mimicrete, based in Cambridge, demonstrated its self-healing concrete for retaining walls. Founded in 2021, Mimicrete is an advanced materials science company, developing self-healing concrete. The technology was developed via a doctorate within the University of Cambridge’s Geotechnical and Environmental Research Group in the Department of Engineering. The self-healing concrete solution can heal concrete cracks as soon as they open up. This avoids further cracking, subsequent structural issues, and the need for repair and early replacement. It can also both lengthen concrete lifetime and reduce the need for overengineering. Other benefits include reducing the amount of concrete required and the associated carbon emissions, and structural monitoring and maintenance costs.
Concretene is a graphene-enhanced admixture for concrete that delivers savings on cost and CO2 emissions. Over the course of a year, Concretene worked with Cemex Rail to deliver a lower-carbon concrete sleeper and cast 60 sleepers for installation at the GCRE site. These used 3.75kg less cement per sleeper (7% CO2 reduction) and met the testing standards of both Cemex and Network Rail for G44-type sleepers
The sleepers were installed by local contractor KGJ Price and Concretene says its second-generation sleeper is already in development and that a 15% reduction in CO2 should be achievable. It added that very productive discussions had taken place with representatives from DBT, Network Rail, Vossloh, Arup, and others regarding the potential deployment of its sleepers in depots and on the network.
AUS Ltd demonstrated is Composite Twin Track Cantilever (CTTC), which is compatible with both old and new infrastructure. AUS Ltd was founded in 1998 and is located in Clayton West, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. It manufactures and supplies specialist equipment to the electrical supply, rail, arboriculture, and telecoms industries. AUS Ltd said its CTTC was born from relentless innovation and fruitful collaboration with The University of Huddersfield, which has propelled it to the forefront of railway construction.
Based in Cambridge, RoboK, is a computer vision start-up whose mission is to make industrial workplaces safer and higher performing using AI. It has developed innovative, privacy-preserving, and cost-effective AI technology to make the most of CCTV cameras. To reduce the chance of injury and encourage better behaviour, RoboK’s AI solution can be used to highlight issues of concern. The tool can also be used to determine whether a level crossing of a railway line is being used correctly by members of the public.
Drone Evolution, based in Caerphilly, South Wales, demonstrated the use of tethered drones in rail. Drones have much to offer rail inspection and surveying, but they typically only stay in the air for around 20 minutes before their batteries need to be changed. However, by powering the drone via a tether attached to a ground station the drone can stay in the air for extended periods of time. This also limits some of the risks associated with drones, such as flyaway.
Silicon MicroGravity is a privately held company based in Waterbeach, north of Cambridge. Its objective is to solve complex challenges and create value through the application of gravity and motion detection, by capturing gravitational and motion data at sensitivities not easily or economically achievable with traditional technology. It has identified applications for its platform technology across a large range of areas including inertial navigation for robotics, autonomous vehicles, civil engineering, and security. Its demonstration at GRCE showed what is possible for gravity sensing in rail construction.
EneRail Ltd was originally founded within the University of Birmingham and based at UKRRIN on the University of Birmingham campus. It provides technology and expertise to deliver savings, and decrease carbon emissions associated with power systems through performance improvements. Rail systems use a considerable amount of energy in day-to-day operations and using the right strategy for controlling the driving of trains can significantly influence energy saving performance. EneRail has developed technology to provide enhanced control strategies for drivers to achieve energy-efficient operation. It can model the route and vehicle, calculate the optimal driving control strategy, and present the results to the drivers in smart ways.
Creativity and ingenuity
After an excellent day of innovative rail industry engineering demonstrations, Simon Jones, GCRE Ltd chief executive, said: “It has been genuinely fantastic for the GCRE to play host to the Innovation in Railway Construction programme and to see the 12 teams at the demonstration day that have been funded to bring their ideas to life.
“We’ve seen creativity and ingenuity from teams as they have tackled some of the biggest challenges in rail, giving us a glimpse of what a more sustainable and more affordable rail network looks like.
“What has been unique about this programme has been the ability of the teams to take their technology and demonstrate it to a live industry audience, in real time. That has had an impact already as we know there are teams involved in the programme that have already seen new overseas interest and leads, new contracts, and, in some cases, new investment in their companies.
“That’s exactly what we hoped for and it shows the power of what GCRE can do, as a purpose-built site to support technologically advanced rail innovation and, particularly, the commercialisation of new ideas into new business and export opportunities.”