Railway Revolution

If you view the railway network as still lodged in the Victorian era, you should think again. A revolution in rail travel is in progress. Ever-increasing road congestion and worsening global warming are pushing more traffic onto the rail network and will continue to do so. Rail travel is an inherently efficient method of moving both people and goods in an environmentally sustainable manner.

We can build more routes, but the existing rail network needs to move more people and more goods every day. This means running more trains, more frequently and more sustainably.

But to push more trains onto the track, train spacing must be greatly reduced. This requires a revolution in train management, abolishing fixed track sections and creating new systems for detecting the precise location of trains, automated control across the network, highly sophisticated scheduling and more robust safety systems.

Building a sustainable network

Further improvements to sustainability will see the removal of diesel traction, replaced by further track electrification and battery or hydrogen fuel cell-powered trains. Rolling stock will also use advanced materials to reduce weight, regenerative braking to conserve power and more intelligent power control. Routing slow goods traffic in between passenger trains is difficult and inefficient and will be done at night when currently, routes are often closed for manual inspection.

Happily, manual inspection will become a thing of the past as track and rolling stock monitoring is performed by automated and robotic systems. Track, overheads and rolling stock will be fitted with extensive sensing for continuous monitoring and diagnostics. Further sensors built into track and overheads will monitor rolling stock while conversely, sensors built into rolling stock will monitor track and overheads, at full train operating speeds. Robotic trains and autonomous drones operating beyond-line-of-sight will conduct automated surveys. Sophisticated data exploitation techniques will process and examine all this data to look for trends in wear and defects, predicting potential failure before it happens and improving network up-time.

All about the passenger

All the above will benefit the passenger experience, through improved punctuality, better reliability and more frequent services. But this is only a start. Better management of passenger flows at busy stations will direct travellers to the most appropriate train carriage. Improved security screening techniques will keep people safe without impeding the flow, while accurate real-time passenger information will make travel decisions easier to make.

This revolution demands a strong culture of innovation to drive radical changes in train operating practice. It also requires the very best of current technology, including advanced sensing, ubiquitous communications, powerful but trustworthy data processing and enhanced autonomy.

If you need to be sure you are building the very best of current technology into your products and systems, do give us a call. We’d love to talk about how we can help you create the railway revolution.