Lightweight energy-saving carriages, software telling passengers
how busy arriving trains are, and personalised ticket machines
that help customers with their ongoing journeys are just some of
the projects that have won funding in the government’s railways
innovation scheme.
Now another £7.9 million is on offer to develop cutting-edge ways
to improve the network for passengers in the next round of
the Accelerating Innovation in Rail
(AIR)
scheme, run by the Department for Transport (DfT) in partnership with
Innovate UK.
The competition is open to companies of all sizes across the UK,
but all entries must be collaborative, involving at least two
different organisations and at least one SME. Entries will be
accepted from 18 September to 15 November 2017.
Rail Minister said:
We want to see ideas that improve reliability on the network
for passengers. We have a wealth of pioneering, innovative
companies out there ready to put their ideas into practice.
This is about nurturing innovation on the railways and about
developing trains that are less reliant on complex and
expensive infrastructure.
We want to tap into these inventive and ground-breaking ideas
for the benefit of rail passengers across the country, and to
support the biggest modernisation programme in rail since the
Victorian era.
The last funding round in
March this year attracted a diverse range of entries,
including designing automated vehicles to carry out track
inspections, improving trackside drainage to cut delays and line
closures, and software to predict when potential train breakdowns
might occur
The funding has been allocated through a rigorous assessment
process involving experts from the industry, and has attracted up
to £4 million in private sector finance as well. Following
successful testing and demonstration, successful projects will
have the potential to be rolled out across the network.
