Infrastructure£5 million investment in U.K. rail technology, business innovation

The U.K. government is leading on an investment of £5 million to accelerate business innovation and growth in the U.K. rail industry, using the funds to support the development of technologies to address technological and business challenges.

The funding comes from the Technology Strategy Board, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), with 50 percent of the funding coming through RSSB, the rail industry body for research and development.

The RSSB says that the £5million will be invested through grant awards to nineteen major new business-led research and development projects. The awards, which follow the outcome of the Accelerating Innovation in Rail’ competition for R&D funding, mark the start of a strategic partnership between RSSB and the Technology Strategy Board.

Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board, added: “These exciting business-led collaborative projects will develop innovative technologies to address the key challenges facing the U.K. rail industry today — cost, carbon, capacity and customer satisfaction – and we are delighted to be working with the rail industry through RSSB to support such vital business innovation.”

Len Porter, chief executive of RSSB, said: “The railway industry is a product of invention and innovation, but today the industry is facing the twin challenges of growth while reducing costs. This partnership recognizes the role that innovation from all sizes of business can play in meeting those challenges. We are delighted to be working with the Technology Strategy Board to take so many exciting projects forward.”

The nineteen projects will involve a total of forty-six companies, universities, and other organizations, including twenty-one small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

The RSSB says that the funding program will increase the level of innovation in established rail businesses while introducing new businesses to the rail sector. The projects include work that will lead, for example, to the development of:

• Systems to improve the energy efficiency of both diesel and electric-powered trains
• Better passenger services such as multi-modal journey planning and enhanced voice and broadband provision on passenger trains
• Improving safety and reducing delays and cost in winter with energy efficient heating system for points and an on-train adhesion monitoring system
• Reducing the lifetime costs of rail infrastructure and rolling-stock with technologies such as laser cladding, asset monitoring systems and the use of composite materials

Because of the number of applications and their high quality, additional funding has been made available, with both RSSB and BIS providing contributions to increase the total amount of funding from £4 million to £5 million. Including contributions from the companies involved, the total value of the R&D projects is in excess of £10 million.

The grant funding forms part of the Technology Strategy Board’s program of investment in business-led innovation in transport and is in partnership with the rail industry, represented by the Technical Strategy Leadership Group, an RSSB-facilitated cross-industry expert body.