‘Innovating our way to stronger, greener and more cost-efficient rail infrastructure’
By Kelvin Davies
Head of Innovation at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence
The world is changing at a dizzying pace and our transport system is at the forefront of that revolution.
New advances in transport technology, combined with a greater understanding of human impact on the planet is fundamentally altering our travel patterns, our transport infrastructure and the mobility choices we make. Developments in new traction systems as well as advances in digitalisation and data analytics afford us the opportunity to radically re-think the way people and goods move around; how the places we live in function and the very underpinnings of our economy.
Critically, these advances in technology allow us the opportunity to help tackle some of the most fundamental and urgent challenges of our age – perhaps most importantly of all the existential threat posed by the climate crisis, which is leading governments and societies across the world to re-imagine integrated transport.
As a result there is huge demand across the planet for new ideas and new technologies that can support higher-quality, more integrated and net zero travel. There is significant political and commercial demand for newer, faster and lower carbon ways to move freight and goods around our economy. There is new urgency from the public for stronger, more reliable and more connective infrastructure that can promote greater fairness and equality in the way we live and work.
But while our ambition is rightly significant, we have to think about delivery, too. How can we deliver projects and major schemes that underpin that future – not just here in the UK, but across Europe, the Middle East and beyond – in the most efficient and affordable way?
The challenge is a significant one, certainly here in the UK.
Just recently the Boston Consulting Group found that while over the coming decades the energy transition and impacts of climate change will require larger and, in many cases, more complex infrastructure, data on National Significant Infrastructure Projects show that between 2012 and 2021 delivery time increased by 65% on UK projects. When it comes to social infrastructure the UK performs better, but in terms of unit costs for rail and road projects the UK’s absolute unit costs are higher than all other peer countries. The core message from their work is that from complex to foundational projects, there is opportunity to undertake infrastructure schemes more efficiently.
We know the problem that delays and high costs in major schemes cause. Projects that run over time and over budget often dampen funders appetite for further infrastructure ambition. Across the world, there are numerous examples of projects at best being slowed down – and at worst in retreat or being scaled back – because public finances across the world are stretched and cannot cope with such challenges. At a time of climate emergency it’s obvious this isn’t where we need to be.
As a site for world class rail and mobility research, testing and certification, including providing Europe with the continent’s first ever purpose-built site for infrastructure innovation, we think the Global Centre Of Rail Excellence can help. As a platform for innovation it will help support the more effective delivery of major rail and mobility infrastructure schemes. As a dedicated facility for the testing of new and complex technologies; supporting innovation at higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) and through more comprehensive integration testing, GCRE can help major projects to be delivered more cost efficiently.
Part of what we will help to do is to find more cost-efficient ways to develop rail infrastructure and new technologies. And in a sense we are already testing that concept, through the ‘Innovation in Railway Construction’ competition I’ve been leading on at GCRE.
Funded by the Department for Business and Trade in the UK Government in partnership with Innovate UK, the competition has been running since 2022 and is supporting teams to propose, deliver and demonstrate innovation in railway construction. All projects are due to be delivered at the purpose-built Global Centre of Rail Excellence facility, currently being built in South Wales.
In the first phase of the competition organisations were awarded funding for a feasibility study on their project. From those a group of teams have now been successful in securing funding to take their ideas from the concept to demonstration stage at the GCRE facility. The competition is being supported with £7.4m of public funding, with successful projects awarded funding including self-healing concrete, novel ground surveying techniques, new tunneling and drone technologies as well as next generation digital signalling.
What is important about the programme is that we can support new ideas – that might otherwise not have been funded – through the Innovation in Railway Construction Competition so that they can be taken to the concept stage at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence site.
The ideas we have seen come through the competition give us a glimpse of what tomorrow’s rail infrastructure can be – we are innovating our way to stronger, greener and more cost-efficient rail infrastructure. Through the competition we are helping to accelerate the development of the best ideas to see if we can, ultimately, bring them into operation more quickly on the UK rail network.
From the outset, GCRE was conceived as a place where cutting edge innovation and R&D could be done to make our rail network stronger, more effective and help us get to net zero. This competition highlights the transformational opportunity that GCRE offers in that regard.
The ideas we have seen come through the competition are as exciting and creative as we could have hoped for and prove the value of innovation in tackling the challenges we face. At the Global Centre of Rail Excellence we want to build on this collaboration and use the world class facilities for rail research, testing and innovation we are developing to host more of these exciting competitions and help tackle those complex challenges of the future.
GCRE will become the first ever, purpose-built site for rail and mobility innovation. A world class laboratory which can help set new benchmarks in advanced technology, leadership, standards and product development. GCRE will be a platform from which the future of mobility can be shaped, drawing in talent from around the world with its outputs and innovations then cascading into mobility and transport systems right across the globe, supporting our collective path to net zero.
GCRE is a unique opportunity – and it’s great to be proving it through this new competition.
Notes:
Teams successful in the second round of the Innovation in Railway Construction Competition:
| TEAM | PROJECT | AWARD |
| NATIONWIDE ENGINEERING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT LTD | Graphene enhanced concrete sleeper for lower embodied carbon | £340,436 |
| MIMICRETE LTD | Mimicrete Vascular Self-healing Solution in Railway Practice – Phase 2 Demonstration | £568,102 |
| SILICON MICROGRAVITY LIMITED | Gravity sensing for rail construction demonstration | £156,111 |
| INGRAM NETWORKS LTD | Delivering telecommunications innovations in Railway construction at the GCRE | £566,600 |
| HYPERTUNNEL LIMITED | GCRE: Railway Construction Innovation Phase 2 | £557,406 |
| FOCUS SENSORS LIMITED | AURA 2 – Attaining Ubiquitous Railway Analysis Phase 2 | £163,026 |
| FURRER + FREY GB LIMITED | ICAGE (Innovative CAntilever for Greener Electrification at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence) | £415,178 |
| UNIVERSAL SIGNALLING LTD | Universal Interlocking: Next generation digital signalling as overlay on GCRE | £559,070 |
| ASSOCIATED UTILITY SUPPLIES LIMITED | A Composite Twin Track Cantilever (CTTC) for Smarter Rail Electrification | £533,189 |
| FURRER + FREY GB LIMITED | CODES (COst-Reducing Dynamic Electrification gradient System) | £450,347 |
| ROBOK LIMITED | INTERMODAL – INTElligent Real-time, MOnitoring & Detection video AnaLytics solution for rail construction | £411,000 |
| ENERAIL LTD | Energy Control System for Energy Storage and Renewables | £505,669 |
| THOMSON ENGINEERING DESIGN LTD | Mobile Rail Panel Handler (MoRPH) | £305,530 |
| DRONE EVOLUTION LIMITED | Phase 2 – Use of tethered drones in rail | £320,433 |