Brand new rail tech to ‘pandemic proof’ train travel

Friday, 2 July 2021 00:01

New tech to encourage passengers back to the railway post-Covid have received government backing as part of the First of a Kind competition A 360°immersive journey planning app, interchangeable train interiors and an app connecting passengers to the world outside their train 30 projects to share £9m investment to launch tech to improve rail journeys, increase passenger confidence and make the network even greener...Request free trial

New tech to encourage passengers back to the railway post-Covid have received government backing as part of the First of a Kind competition
A 360°immersive journey planning app, interchangeable train interiors and an app connecting passengers to the world outside their train
30 projects to share £9m investment to launch tech to improve rail journeys, increase passenger confidence and make the network even greener

A virtual reality immersive journey planning app for trains and stations could soon make journeys easier by reducing passenger anxiety and helping passengers to understand their journey ahead of travelling.

The technology is one of the winners of the latest round of the First of a Kind (FOAK) competition announced today by the Transport Secretary. This year the competition has been aimed at making the railways cleaner, greener and more passenger friendly.

The Department for Transport, in partnership with Innovate UK, has funded 30 ground-breaking projects with a share of £9 million. The competition is focused on developing pioneering technology and exceptional ideas that can improve journeys for travellers, encourage passengers back onto the network and reducing the environmental impacts of rail as we build back better from Covid-19.

Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said:

“I am delighted to announce the winners of the 2021 First of a Kind competition. These winners will hopefully play a role putting passengers at the centre of our railways as we build back better from Covid-19.

“The competition always throws up surprises and the ideas shown today could transform how we travel in future.”

The creative problem solving on display in this competition will be further encouraged by the reforms brought about by the Williams Shapps Plan for Rail. The expertise and innovation of the private sector will improve efficiency making it easier and cheaper to plan maintenance, renewals and upgrades’ and unlocking new benefits for passengers.

Winners include a revolutionary app that connects rail travellers to the world outside their window and brings the route to life. As passengers travel the app uses geo-location to immerse passengers in the history and stories of the places they travel through, making even the morning commute a train ride back in time.

Other winning projects include:

A system to monitor people flow, congestion points and behaviour at stations so operators can remover bottlenecks and deploy countermeasures, helping people avoid crowds and restoring passenger confidence in the rail system post COVID-19.
A scheme that provides an interchangeable interior train carriage for quick, deep cleaning and allowing operators to rejig a trains seating layout at short notice. Reacting to demand, keeping passengers safe and freeing up space.
A project that uses electromagnetism to deliver safe and predictable braking in harsh conditions, whilst improving acceleration.
A scheme which aims to deliver a train running on hydrogen and a hydrogen gas blend promising low emissions and an even greener railway.

Simon Edmonds, Deputy Executive Chair and Chief Business Officer, Innovate UK, said:

"As we move ever closer to getting past the pandemic, passengers are returning to the railway. To give them ever greater confidence that rail is safe and sustainable we called upon UK innovators to come up with fresh ideas. Yet again the response has been fantastic. Not only will passengers benefit from these great innovations but business prospects are bright in this sector too.”

Now in its fifth round, the competition was open to inventors from across the nation, regardless of the organisations size or stature which allows small companies with bright ideas to be recognised.

Previous winners include the LoCe (Less oil, Cleaner exhaust) project that secured £398k in 2020. The project has developed new diesel exhaust technology which reduces the nitrogen oxide emissions by around 80%. The technology has been fitted to a Porterbrook owned Class 170 Turbostar, operated by East Midlands Railway, and has subsequently reduced harmful engine emissions.

Notes to editors

The FOAK competition winners


Project	Lead organisation	Summary
Loyalty Platform to Encourage Customers Back to rail	Urbanthings Ltd	Rail+ Club is a rail-focussed loyalty platform which uses novel technology to non-intrusively track passenger engagement across the rail network. This enables a rewards and incentives programme to enhance the passenger experience and encourage passengers back to rail.
Project EDGE: Using AI to fuse terrestrial and satellite signals to improve connectivity on the rail network	Massive Analytic Limited	Massive Analytic Limited will use AI technology to combine terrestrial and satellite signals to enhance on board voice and data connectivity for customers and train staff and provide better real-time information on train locations.
Passenger Orientation Guide	Mission Room Ltd	Mission Room is building a guidance system to help passengers navigate stations and train journeys based on some simple information that the customer provides about their journey and individual circumstances. It will be able to build a personalised visual 360 degree tour that will take them from the station entrance to their seat on the train accessible from home, at the station (touch screens) or on a smart phone. It can customise tours to take account of personal disabilities, reduce passenger anxiety and help passengers understand their journey ahead of travelling.
Proteus - Flexible Rail Interior System	Priestman Goode Ltd	A carriage environment and seating layout that addresses passenger concerns and provides operators with flexibility for a gradual return of passengers. Key features include: personal space within carriages; seat designs that facilitate easier cleaning and reduction of dirt-traps; features that allow passengers to do work and be productive; improved storage space; and a layout allowing operators to bring seats in and out of service according to demand immediately.
Community Rail Content Platform	Window Seater	Window Seater connects rail travellers to the world outside their window by providing high quality geolocated audio stories which tell passengers about the fascinating features along the railway. This new platform will integrate local stories collected and held by community rail partnerships helping to attract more leisure travellers and bring people back to rail.
Using geospatial visualisation to deliver personalised real-time information to rail passengers	Super Local Ltd	Signalbox will build and demonstrate technology that allows real-time geospatial visualisation of train movements across the entire rail network of Great Britain. The project will allow partners to embed real-time geospatial train maps, enabling passengers to view and track live train movements across the network, making it easier to plan and manage their journey.
The Real-Time Journey Dashboard via QR Codes	Spoken Ink Ltd	Whoosh Media will work with Grand Central to place QR codes stations and seats in rail carriages to distribute information. The technology could greatly improve last mile travel by presenting passengers with information on changes in real-time. This overcomes difficulties caused by delays in multi-modal journeys that static datasets cannot.
CCTV-based passenger density sensing & optimisation	Dynamic Crowd Measurement Ltd	Project aims to provide accurate real-time platform and carriage occupancy insights directly to passengers waiting on platforms allowing them to make informed decisions on which train and in which carriage they will travel, for a safer, more comfortable experience.
Railfreight Energy & Emissions Calculator (REEC)	University Of Hull	A novel Railfreight Energy & Emissions Calculator (REEC) that will be deployed on the existing NR+ platform used for railfreight planning and to calculate more emission computations.
Proactive Mitigation of Adverse Weather Conditions to Increase Passenger Confidence in Rail Resilience	Lenz Ltd	Leaves on the line cause many delays each autumn and winter by making the lines more slippery and braking more dangerous, meaning that speed restrictions need to be applied. Traction Hub fits to trains’ wheels and uses the principles of electromagnetism to deliver safe and predictable braking whilst improving acceleration performance.
Reducing Emissions by Accelerating the Shift to Low Carbon Transport in Heavy Rail Freight	Clean Air Power GT Ltd	Delivering a train (Class 66) running on hydrogen and a hydrogen gas blend or biomethane with low emissions across the drive cycle, particularly at idle where rail industry air quality issues currently exist.
Creating the Gold Standard Air Quality and Exposure Monitoring Tool for Train Stations and Train-Care Depots, using High Spatial & Temporal Resolution Data, Real-time Automated Outputs, Digital Twins and Dispersion-Modeling using Advanced Ray-Tracing	Atmo Technology Ltd	The project aims to create a new gold-standard for air quality monitoring in the rail industry.
IMAGE: Innovative composite Mast for Greener Electrification	Furrer + Frey GB Ltd	Modernising and decarbonising UK railway vehicles through looking at the materials used in Overhead-Line Equipment (OLE) as well as the manufacturing methods, the lineside installation, and automating of the condition monitoring of the masts throughout their operational lives.
Reducing Fatality Disruptions with 8K Forward Facing CCTV Optimised for Remote Access	Howell Enterprises Ltd	After a train encounters a fatality, BTP may need to check the video footage, which can be poor unless there is bright light. The new system will provide BTP with forward facing high quality video using 8K video technology, cloud technology and advanced Artificial Intelligence recordings to allow BTP to reach quicker decisions, reducing hand-back time and alleviating wider customer disruption.
Optimising passenger flows through stations	Hitachi Europe Ltd	System to monitor people flow, congestion points and behaviour at stations so operators can remove bottlenecks, deploy countermeasures, and restore passenger confidence in the rail system post COVID-19.
Driving Approach Optimisation for Alternate Energy Systems	Enerail Ltd	This project provides tools for drivers to readily adapt to driving hydrogen and batter trains more efficiently to reduce energy usage.
An AI based Information System for Passengers (ISP) for the Rail Industry	Artonezero Ltd	This project will increase speed and quality of information automatically provided during disruption, resulting in happier passengers, better informed front-line staff, and improved customer satisfaction ratings.
Covid Secure Travel Virtual Reality Simulation for Passengers	Chrome Angel Solutions Ltd	An immersive virtual reality simulation experience of Covid-secure travel arrangements and customer support in place at stations and on trains, to increase passenger confidence by providing reassurance about the measures in place to protect them.
TRACO	Incremental Solutions Ltd	TRACO will present better and more accurate location information and predicted terminal arrivals to all organisations within the logistical supply chain. By accurately tracking and predicting arrivals for all vehicles, wagons and containers within the supply chain, paper-based systems can be reduced, and freight operations can be better planned and managed to improve the delivery of goods for customers.
TTK Scanning-Post for Barcoded Train Tickets	The Ticket Keeper Ltd	Over 80% of mainline stations are ungated, meaning that tickets are inspected manually by train staff or not at all, providing with a large gap in the existing infrastructure. Ticket Keeper aims to address this by providing a lower cost attractive ticket validation option at these stations with a commercially viable barcoded ticket scanning-post.
Hearing Enhanced Audio Relay (HEAR)	Gomedia Services Ltd	This affordable software solution will broadcast audio announcements to passengers’ own devices and give those with hearing problems the ability to hear audio announcements through their own audio devices
National Rail Assistance Auto-Validation	Transreport Ltd	Transreport will further develop technology already in place to allow real-time automatic validation of accessibility equipment/facilities availability while booking.
Train and Station Cleaning Optimisation and Management	Transreport Ltd	This project will integrate end-to-end cleaning management software with existing train operator infrastructure to record all cleaning activities from in-service cleaning to deep, overnight cleaning and sanitisation so it can be monitored by staff more effectively.
Making Travel on the Highland Mainline part of the Highland Adventure!	Whereverly Ltd	A digital tourism experience highlighting stations and journey of the Highland Mainline, Perth to Inverness running through the central Scottish Highlands, with through AR, information and cultural audio.
ROV Non-Native Invasive Species Vegetation Control for Rail: Herbidrone UAPS	Railscape Ltd	Drone delivered herbicide application for difficult to reach non-native invasive species of vegetation (e.g. buddleia on brickwork) on critical infrastructure (e.g. bridges, retaining walls, embankments, cuttings and tunnel entrances) to reduce work at height and/or near live tracks.
Transport Navigation for the Visually Impaired (Vin)	Gomedia Services Ltd	GoMedia have partnered with the RNIB and technology provider Navilens to help the visually impaired find their way around stations, guiding them to platforms, coffee shops, facilities and more with the use of simple visual markers recognised by a standard mobile phone.
High Power Mainline Hybrid Electric Conversion For Freight Locomotives	Meteor Power Ltd	This project aims to give old freight vehicles a new lease of life by retrofitting a hybrid electric powertrain which would be suitable to carry mainline freight.
A unique way to make 'Rail Travel' as seamless, stress free & easy to use for all	Skignz Ltd	Project will use Precise Location Augmented Reality technology to improve, enhance and improve the seamless flow of passengers through our stations, especially where they may have different needs.
Artificial Intelligence Driven Hydraulic Energy Recovery & Delivery for Rail Wagons	Meteor Power Ltd	Meteor Power will design an energy capture, storage and delivery system that can be fitted to freight wagons themselves to allow them to move away from standstill under their own power, accelerating more quickly to save a considerable amount of time and avoid unnecessary delays.
Decarbonisation & Electrification of Freight Terminals (DEFT Project)	Furrer + Frey GB Ltd	Innovative retractable overhead system that enables the electrification of freight terminals whilst also allowing obstruction-free loading and unloading of freight and eliminates the need for tug/shunting locomotives to manoeuvre electric trains into and out of freight terminals. This can eliminate the current barrier to end-to-end rail freight electrification, end the reliance on diesel, and enabling the full decarbonisation of the rail freight industry.